Is this the world's first medically-approved 'cigarette'?

Since it uses an inhaler device to deliver the nicotine, it can administer a precise dose, a crucial feature for winning approval from the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

This ability also gives it an edge over e-cigarettes, which are designed so users breathe in the vapour produced from heating up a nicotine solution.

Tobacco companies are racing to develop products that can satisfy the MHRA after the regulator ruled last year that all cigarette substitute products sold in Britain must be medically-approved . It made the decision after finding that some existing e-cigarettes contained contaminants and delivered highly variable doses of nicotine.

A number of companies - such as Pfizer and Nicorette - have also developed inhalers for smoking cessation, though their devices do not aim to look and feel exactly like a cigarette.

Voke is the first product to come out of Nicoventures, a joint venture between tobacco giant British American Tobacco and UK biotech Consort Medical. It was conceived by British entrepreneur Alex Hearn whose company Kind Consumer started working with Nicoventures in 2011.

However it will not launch until the group wins a further licence to support the large scale, automated manufacturing of Voke, with analysts expecting the product to start sales in 2015.

A spokesman for Nicoventures said Voke would be priced "competitively" with 20-packs of regular cigarettes.

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