The cigarette has been cleared for commercial release and should be on sale early next year. Swissmedic, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products, has decided the NicStic is not a medicinal product and has cleared the path for its commercial production.

Monique Helfer of Swissmedic said: "If we had classified the NicStic as medication, the manufacturer would have had to apply to have it covered by health insurance and therefore it would have required the approval of the Federal Health Office and taken a lot longer to get to the public." Instead the Swiss invention aimed at smokers who enjoy smoking regardless of growing condemnation of the habit should soon be available for the same cost as normal cigarettes. The smokeless and tobacco-free cigarette uses a rechargeable heating coil in a plastic cigarette-sized stick to dispense nicotine without smoke. NicStic's inventors say their invention will allow smokers to "light-up" without annoying others with passive smoke and therefore avoid the increasing smoking bans in public places. The company promises that dragging on it releases "a similar taste" to cigarettes without the health issues from tar, arsenic, cadmium and formaldehyde that a normal cigarette contains. But Janine Messerli from the Swiss Institute for Alcohol and Drug Prevention is critical of NicStic and the Swissmedic decision: "Nicotine is what makes smoking addictive, and so this product changes nothing."