LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Britain's drug regulators havegiven the go-ahead for a British American Tobacco electronic-cigarette vaping device to be sold as a quit smokingmedicine, the first such product to be given a drug licence inthe UK.
The decision to licence BAT's e-Voke product means it cannow be prescribed on the state-funded National Health Servicefor patients trying to give up smoking.
"We want to ensure licensed nicotine containing products --including e-cigarettes -- which make medicinal claims areavailable and meet appropriate standards of safety, quality andefficacy to help reduce the harms from smoking," the Medicinesand Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said in astatement on Monday.
The statement said the e-Voke licence was granted"recently", and a spokesman told Reuters it was issued "towardsthe end of last year".
Many experts think e-cigarettes, which heat nicotine-lacedliquid into an inhalable vapour, are a lower-risk alternative tosmoking, but since they are relatively new products, there islittle long-term evidence on their safety.
Public Health England, the government's public healthagency, has said it considers e-cigarettes to be at least 95percent safer than tobacco cigarettes, which cause lung cancerand many other diseases and kill half of all those who use them.
BAT said in a statement on its website it is "currentlyevaluating plans to commercialise" e-Voke, which uses cartridgescontaining pharmaceutical grade nicotine.
More than 2 million adults use e-cigarettes in Britain,about a third of whom are ex-smokers and two-thirds currentsmokers, according to the charity Action on Smoking and Health.
Big tobacco firms, including BAT, Philip MorrisInternational, Japan Tobacco and ImperialTobacco Group, are jostling for position in the emergingvaping market, which is estimated at around $7 billion for 2015.
The MHRA said it would "continue to encourage companies tovoluntarily submit medicines licence applications fore-cigarettes and other nicotine containing products asmedicines" and hoped to see more e-cigarettes and nextgeneration nicotine delivery products submit applications infuture. (Reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Louise Heavens)
British American Tobacco (BATS)