Context

Smoking is a nicotine-based addiction affecting about a billion people worldwide.1 Inhaling the tars and carbon monoxide from burned tobacco causes the premature death of about two-thirds of those who smoke throughout their lives and is the leading cause of preventable mortality and morbidity.2 Effective pharmacological therapies have helped reduce smoking prevalence in wealthier countries, but are prohibitively expensive in poorer countries where smoking is most prevalent.3 ,4

Cytisine is a low-cost cessation treatment, which has been licensed in a few Eastern European countries since the 1960s. It is an alkaloid partial agonist of nicotinic …