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28th February, 2008
Nice - The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (in the UK) have approved Champix to be recommended to all smokers to help them to quit, with the exception of people aged under 18 years and pregnant women. Nice accepts that Champix can dramatically increase a smoker's chances of giving up.

However, Nice have stated that they remain "cautious" as the full side effects of Champix are not yet known.

Christine Owens, of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, stated that the best way for a smoker to quit was to take Champix in conjunction with support to change a smoker's behaviour.

The Nice committee is aware of a possible link between taking Champix and having suicidal tendencies. However, it is currently unclear whether these tendencies are due to Champix or to whether the smokers are stressed because they are no longer smoking. It could be that nicotine withdrawal symptoms exacerbate an underlying psychiatric illness.

Pfizer, the company that manufacturs Champix, has stated that no causal link has been found between taking Champix and depression. Nevertheless, in the US (where the drug is called Chantix), officials there have linked the taking of Champix to 37 suicides.

Therefore, in Europe, the EMA (European Medicines Agency) have said that Champix must come with a safety warning.

11th July, 2007
Stoke-on-Trent has received a new nickname - Smoke-on-Trent - as the local council failed to get the required enforcement powers in time for July 1st, when the smoking ban was supposed to go live throughout England. The ban will not be formally approved in Stoke-on-Trent until a council meeting to be held on August 2nd, 2007.

7th June, 2007
Champix has been been tested on rats addicted to alcohol, and has been shown to reduce alcohol intake. Alcohol and nicotine are routinely abused in tandem, and there is evidence to suggest that the same receptors in the brain are responsible for both addictions. Therefore, Champix may also become a treatment for alcohol addiction aswell as nicotine dependence.

31st May, 2007
Draft approval has been given by NICE for the prescription of Champix by the NHS.

14th March, 2007
Smokers who live in Bury, Greater Manchester (UK) are to be prescribed Champix on the NHS, even though it is more expensive than the other current treatments. The Department of Health are under no obligation to prescribe Champix as it has yet to be approved as cost effective by NICE. However, Bury Primary Care Trust managers are offering Champix routinely as a smoker is 4 times more likely to quit when taking Champix, than by using willpower alone. Bury is thought to be the only trust in England that is currently offering Champix on the NHS.

Champix is likely to be approved by NICE during the summer of 2007 - probably to coincide with the UK smoking ban on July 1st. It was approved for use in Scotland in January 2007.

26th January, 2007
There has been a bit of an ethical debate in Canada this week concerning Champix. A news release has been distributed by Pfizer quoting Dr Andrew Pipe, who has stated that the new drug will help many people to quit smoking. Indeed, Champix was approved for sale in Canada this week.

However, Dr Pipe was the doctor involved in the clinical trials of Champix, and this is not made clear in the press release. Hence people are bound to question his impartiality. Dr Pipe has since stated that he has received no direct salary from Pfizer, although Pfizer did pay for the research. Ethical questions remain, though, and a US steering group is currently looking at conflicts of interest that may arise when pharmaceutical companies fund research by doctors.

25th January, 2007
Champix has been shown to make quitting smoking three times more successful than just using willpower alone. The data from the six clinical trials has been reviewed by The Cochrane Foundation, an independent non-profit organisation that reviews clinical data