Cytisine can help quit smoking in a most feasible way, finds study

A new study published in Addiction has found that cytisine, a low-cost, generic stop-smoking aid that has been used in eastern Europe since the 1960s, increases the chances of successful smoking cessation by more than two-fold compared with placebo and may be more effective than nicotine replacement therapy. It has a benign safety profile, with no evidence of serious safety concerns. Sounds perfect for your New Year resolution, doesn’t it? But there’s a catch: Cytisine is not licensed or marketed in most countries outside of central and eastern Europe, making it unavailable in most of the world, including many low- and middle-income countries where it could make a big difference to global health.

Cytisine is a plant-based compound that eases smoking withdrawal symptoms. It was first synthesised in Bulgaria in 1964 as Tabex® and later spread to other countries in eastern Europe and Asia, where it is still marketed. In 2017, the Polish pharmaceutical company Aflofarm began selling it as Desmoxan®, a prescription-only medicine, and Canada approved it as an over-the-counter natural health product, Cravv®.