Smokers should be prescribed a drug that triples their chances of giving up, the Government's rationing watchdog, Nice, said yesterday.

NHS to pay for £163 drug to help smokers quit - Telegraph

Extract:

"Smokers should be prescribed a drug that triples their chances of giving up, the Government's rationing watchdog said yesterday.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) said the NHS should pay for twice daily doses of varenicline, sold as Champix, for those who want to quit.

The draft guidelines follow controversy over Nice's decision to reject the drugs Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl for those in the early stages of Alzheimer's. The institute ruled that at £2.50 per day per patient they were not cost-effective.

Champix costs £1.95 per patient per day. Anti-smoking campaigners welcomed Nice's provisional ruling, saying the £163.80 cost to the NHS for each 12-week course would be more than recouped from the NHS's £1.5 billion annual bill for treating diseases caused by smoking.

Others questioned why people who chose to take up smoking should receive help from the public purse to give up when Nice has turned down funding for a number of Alzheimer's and cancer drugs."

I think it would be better to make the drug available to purchase over the counter, rather than have it as a free prescription-only drug.

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See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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