Nicotine replacement therapies to aid smoking cessation

Published on 19 Dec 2022
Last Updated on 19 Dec 2022

Guidance Recommendations

The Ministry of Health's Drug Advisory Committee has recommended:

• Nicotine 7 mg/ 24 hours, 14 mg/ 24 hours, and 21 mg/ 24 hours transdermal patches (Nicotinell);

• Nicotine 2 mg and 4 mg chewing gums (Nicorette); and

• Nicotine 1 mg lozenge (Nicotinell)

to be used as an aid for smoking cessation in patients who are willing to quit and enrolled in a smoking cessation counselling program, with a documented Fagerstrom score of three and above. The smoking cessation counselling programme should include a minimum of three counselling sessions, and counselling should be delivered by a healthcare professional trained in smoking cessation counselling, at an approved setting. Nicotine replacement therapies should not be used in combination with varenicline for smoking cessation.

Funding status

Nicotine 7 mg/ 24 hours, 14 mg/ 24 hours, 21 mg/ 24 hours transdermal patches (Nicotinell), nicotine 2 mg and 4 mg chewing gums (Nicorette) and nicotine 1 mg lozenge (Nicotinell) are recommended for inclusion on the MOH Medication Assistance Fund (MAF) for the abovementioned indication from 1 February 2023.

MAF assistance does not apply to any strengths of nicotine transdermal patch (Nicorette) and nicotine chewing gum (Nicotinell).

Nicotine replacement therapies to aid smoking cessation (19 December 2022) [PDF, 104 KB]