Rapidly, varenicline (then sold under its brand names, Champix and Chantix) became unavailable. This was a disaster for public health. Research from University College London<\/a> estimated that varenicline being unavailable resulted in about 1,890 more avoidable deaths each year because fewer people were successfully quitting smoking.<\/p>\n But there was hope. Cytisine (also known as cytisinicline), a naturally occurring plant-based product that had been used for decades in Eastern Europe, and more recently to great effect elsewhere in the world, was licensed in the UK and made available from January 2024.<\/p>\n Even so, there was an extended period when neither were available to people trying to quit smoking in the UK (and in other countries, too). But in the UK at least, things were looking up. <\/p>\n Based on a limited but growing body of evidence, cytisine probably works as well as varenicline at helping people quit smoking, and it may be better tolerated with fewer side effects.<\/p>\n It may also appeal to more smokers who may want to use a natural product rather than a drug designed in a lab. So, with varenicline withdrawn and a similarly effective treatment available, we should have seen lives saved as people who would have taken varenicline were encouraged to try cytisine instead.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n In 2021, varenicline was withdrawn from the market in the UK (Getty)<\/p>\n Why isn\u2019t anyone prescribing it?<\/p>\n This didn\u2019t happen. Cytisine \u2013 despite now being licensed and available in the UK \u2013 is still shockingly underused.<\/p>\n Since January 2024, only 0.2 per cent of people trying to quit smoking have used it (the same proportion that used it in 2018, when it wasn\u2019t even officially available in the UK). Official NHS<\/a> data from people accessing stop-smoking services in England confirm that only 0.7 per cent were prescribed cytisine in 2024.<\/p>\n So why is this? High-profile trials continue to show cytisine\u2019s effectiveness for quitting smoking (and even for quitting vaping<\/a>).<\/p>\n Maybe cytisine\u2019s relatively complex dosing schedule puts people off. Cytisine starts with six pills a day (one every two hours) and gradually tapers off over a few weeks: more confusing and less convenient than one-a-day varenicline.<\/p>\n About the authors<\/p>\n Jonathan Livingstone-Banks is a Lecturer & Senior Researcher in Evidence-Based Healthcare at the University of Oxford.<\/p>\n Dimitra Kale is a Senior Research Fellow in Health Psychology at UCL. <\/p>\n Lion Shahab is a Professor in Health Psychology at UCL.<\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/champix.jpg\")
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