The NHS will offer a daily pill that triples your chance of quitting smoking in a bid to save thousands of lives.
Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, hailed the drug as a “game-changer” and an important step towards creating a “smoke-free generation”.
Studies show that varenicline is three times more effective than a placebo in helping people quit. It also works as well as vaporizers and better than nicotine replacement gum or patches.
The medication reduces nicotine cravings and blocks its effect on the brain, while also helping with withdrawal symptoms, such as feeling irritable or having trouble sleeping. When used alongside behavioral support, such as counselling, the treatment has been shown to help about one in four people quit smoking for at least six months.
The NHS expects 85,000 smokers a year to try the drug and believes it will prevent 9,500 smoking-related deaths over the next five years.
Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, hailed the drug as a “game-changer” and an important step towards creating a “smoke-free generation”.
The drug reduces nicotine cravings and blocks its effect on the brain, while also helping with withdrawal symptoms, such as feeling irritable or having trouble sleeping (file image)
Ms Pritchard will reveal details about the drug’s launch in a speech at the NHS provider conference in Liverpool today.
She will say: “This simple daily pill could be a game-changer for people wanting to quit smoking and is another vital step in moving our NHS further towards prevention.” Smoking remains one of the biggest public health problems facing the NHS.’
Around six million adults in the UK (one in eight) smoke and there were more than 400,000 hospital admissions in England attributed to smoking in 2022/23.
Each year the NHS spends £2.5 billion treating health problems caused by smoking. Varenicline will be available to patients in England through NHS Stop Smoking Services in collaboration with pharmaceutical company Teva UK, which is producing a new generic version of the treatment.
A brand-name version, Champix, was recalled in 2021 after it was found to contain elevated levels of the potentially carcinogenic compound N-nitroso-varenicline. The Medicines Regulatory and Health Authority has approved the relaunched generic product as safe.
Dr Ian Walker, from Cancer Research UK, said: “Around 160 cases of cancer are caused by smoking every day in the UK, so it is essential that action is taken to stop people smoking in the UK. first place.”