NICE clears Champix for NHS

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the UK advisory body which approves medical treatments for the National Health Service in England and Wales, has issued guidance recommending Pfizer's smoking cessation drug Champix (varenicline) as an option for those who have expressed a desire to stop smoking. Andrew Dillion, chief executive of the NICE, said that, having looked at the evidence "the independent committee concluded that [Champix] was a good way to help people stop smoking," adding that, although the drug should usually be prescribed as an adjunct to behavioral assistance, a lack of such support should not preclude the product's use. Observers greeted the news with some consternation, arguing that the NICE's recent hesitance to clear certain therpies for cancer and age-related macular degeneration, both of which are linked to smoking, was contradictory. Joyce Robins, of UK campaigning group Patient Concern, was quoted in the Daily Telegraph as saying that the ruling "won't be a lot of comfort for those whose mother is deteriorating with Alzheimer's or if you are going blind."