NICE has recommended cytisine for people who want to stop smoking, giving GPs another treatment option.
In final guidance published last week, NICE added the treatment (also known as cytisinicline) to the list of approved medical treatments alongside nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), varenicline and buproprion.
Cytisine should only be offered to people between the age of 18 and 65 years, the guidelines said.
And behavioural support should also be offered whatever option people choose to help them quit, it added.
The latest guidelines Tobacco: preventing uptake, promoting quitting and treating dependence are an update from 2021 when the committee reviewed all the evidence on medicinal products to help people quit but cytisine was not available at the time.
Reviewing the evidence for cytisine in the latest update, the committee found that it was helping people to stop smoking when combined with behavioural support.
The pill was also found to be more effective than placebo or NRT, and there was no difference in effectiveness when compared with varenicline.
But the committee noted there was limited evidence for various population subgroups, particularly groups affected by health inequalities.
Cytisine was approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency in 2019 and made available in the UK last year.
A Cochrane review in 2023 found that cytisine and varenicline were among the most effective tools for helping people stop smoking, but noted that there were not widely available.
The removal of varenicline from the UK market in 2021 after impurities were found in supplies may have led to thousands fewer people attempting to stop smoking, researchers have estimated.
NHS England announced it would be reintroduced late last year.
Dr Alex Bobak, a GP with special interest in smoking cessation said it was good news that there was another option to help people quit.
He added in some European countries it had been used very successfully for decades.
‘It is very easy to take and an effective medication and I really would recommend using it.’
The National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training has guidance on how to prescribe the drug if GPs wanted to learn more, he advised.
