NIDA and FDA call for new pathways for smoking cessation

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in a commentary published last week in the Annals of Internal Medicine , call for innovations in research and development of smoking cessation therapies. Cigarette smoking, while decreasing, kills nearly 500,000 Americans each year. The opioid overdose epidemic kills one‐fifth of that. More than 28 million adults currently smoke in the United States. Most of them say they want to quit, but only 31% of those receive counseling and/or medications to do so. Less than 8% quit a year.