New smoking pill gives hope to smokers trying to give up, as trial shows a third quit after just two months

A drug made from East Asian trees can help a third of smokers quit after just two months, according to a new trial.

Cytisinicline, a daily tablet, was found to keep smokers off cigarettes for at least five and a half months. If approved, the medicine would be the only smoking cessation drug currently available in the UK.

The results come amid concern about the safety of one of the most popular smoking cessation aids, e-cigarettes. Last week, the Local Government Association, which represents all local councils, called for a ban on disposable vapes, saying they pose harm to young people and cannot be recycled.

Around 6.6 million Britons are smokers – about one in ten. In 2019, the Government announced plans to make Britain smoke-free by 2030, but experts say it is unlikely the UK will meet the target, partly due to a lack of effective stop-smoking treatments.

Cytisinicline has been used in Eastern European countries as a smoking cessation aid since the 1980s. It is made from Golden Rain trees – a flowering plant native to eastern Asia. It interferes with the brain’s receptor cells that respond to nicotine, reducing cravings and helping withdrawal.

The new study, by Massachusetts General Hospital’s Tobacco Research and Treatment Centre, tested the drug on 810 smokers who wanted to quit and compared their outcomes with a group given a dummy pill and counselling. Volunteers took a 3mg tablet three times a day. One group took the pill for six weeks, while another took it for 12. One in four of those on the six-week programme stopped smoking completely, compared to around one in 20 in the placebo group.

In the 12-week programme, a third quit, compared to less than one on ten in the placebo. After almost three months, a fifth were still not smoking. Mild side effects, such as nausea, abnormal dreams and insomnia, occurred in one in ten volunteers who took the drug.

Darush Attah-Zadeh, respiratory pharmacist at the North West London Integrated Care Board, told the Pharmaceutical Journal: ‘It has the potential to become the first new agent approved in nearly two decades and an important treatment option for treating tobacco dependence.’