GlaxoSmithKline calls on EU for tighter E-cigarettes regulations

GlaxoSmithKline is calling on the European Union to impose tougher regulations on E-cigarettes in an effort to improve safety for people trying to quit smoking.

The UK has put plans in place to ensure strict rules for the industry, with producing companies required to license E-cigarettes as a nicotine-replacement therapy – bringing them in line with the pharmaceutical industry's other cessation products.

This will mean E-Cigarettes will need to be marketed as a medicine in the same ways that nicotine gums and patches are.

E-cigarettes are expected to create a $7 billion (4.2 billion pounds) industry by the end of this year and GlaxoSmithKline's vice-president of European public affairs Sophie Crousse said: "We believe in responsible and proportionate regulation for all nicotine-containing products as medicinal products."

At the end of 2013, the EU and the European Parliament declared only the E-cigarettes products with the highest nicotine content need to be considered and therefore marketed as a medicine.