A number of newspapers have reported on Friday’s announcement by the Secretary of State for Health, Sajid Javid, that medicinal licensing of e-cigarettes may be more of a possibility after guidance was changed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
The story appeared on the front page of no fewer than four national dailies.
While this is a ground-breaking policy proposal, and rightly described as world-leading by Mr Javid, there is much more to it than the media headlines suggest. Social media has been abuzz with a diverse range of opinions on what this entails so here is an explainer.
Firstly, this is not a change in current policy, nor is it an instant guarantee that doctors will begin to prescribe vaping products. Instead, it is billed as a streamlining of the process by which the MHRA would accept a vaping product to be licensed for medicinal purposes. You can read the new guidelines on the MHRA site here.
New Nicotine Alliance – 2021-11-02.
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