21st December 2015
GPs could face thousands of requests from patients wanting to be prescribed e-cigarettes after the Government announced one of the devices has now been licenced by the UK drugs regulator. The Department of Health confirmed that the newly-licensed e-cigarette would be ‘prescribed alongside existing nicotine replacement therapies’. Public health chiefs said they welcomed the news, providing ‘another option for stop smoking services, GPs and pharmacists to help smokers quit’. GP leaders are more cautious, however, warning that it could place extra, unnecessary burden on GPs and that stop smoking services should pick up the demand. Public health minister Jane Ellison MP revealed the licence had been granted for an e-cigarette during a Commons meeting in November 2015 – ‘the first e-cigarette was licenced by Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) earlier this month.’
The Government believes that using the products is ‘significantly less harmful than smoking tobacco products’ and that ‘evidence suggests that smokers can substantially benefit their health by fully substituting the use of e-cigarettes for smoking’. The MHRA confirmed that the above device was the first true substitute to be licensed and that it would be on general sale in pharmacies prescription-free, and on prescription through smoking cessation services: ‘We have recently licensed the e-Voke as a medicine, which means it is a product of acceptable quality and can be an effective aid to smoking cessation. The e-Voke is the second product meeting the definition of an e-cigarette to receive a marketing authorisation, but is the first that electronically produces a vapour containing nicotine for inhalation, and thus would be considered a true e-cigarette’.
The DH said that it welcomed the arrival of such products prescribed alongside existing nicotine replacement therapies.