LONDON – The U.K. has given approval for British American Tobacco’s (BAT) electronic cigarette to be sold as a smoking cessation medicine, Reuters reports. This is the first time an e-cig has been given a drug license in the United Kingdom.

This means that through the National Health Service, doctors can prescribe BAT’s e-Voke to patients as a way to help them stop smoking. “We want to ensure licensed nicotine containing products—including e-cigarettes—[that] make medicinal claims are available and meet appropriate standards of safety, quality and efficacy to help reduce the harms from smoking,” the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) noted in a statement.

The move comes as many experts have arrived at the view that electronic cigarettes provide a lower-risk replacement for cigarette smoking. However, the newness of the products hasn’t allowed for long-term evidence of safety.

That didn’t stop Public Health England from saying it views e-cigs as 95% safer than traditional cigarettes. The Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency indicated it would “continue to encourage companies to voluntarily submit…license applications for e-cigarettes and other nicotine containing products as medicines.” The agency would like more applications from e-cigarette makers for consideration.