Elevated Dose of Sublingual Nicotine Tablets Compared With Swedish Snus. Nicotine Pharmacokinetics and Subjective Effects of Single Doses.

Open, randomized, five-way cross-over. Single dose administration. The Nicorette 6 mg sublingual tablets and three strengths of SS are tested. Subjects are 18-50 years old, male/female (non-pregnant), healthy volunteer, using minimum 12 pouches of 1 g portion snus or half a can of loose snus per day. The treatments are given as single doses in randomized order. The subject keeps the sublingual tablets still under the tongue for 30 minutes. The subject keeps the pouch(es) of snus still between the upper lip and the gum for 30 minutes. Serial blood samples are drawn before, and at regular time intervals up to 6 hours after administration. Amount of nicotine extracted, plasma nicotine concentration at 30 minutes (C30), Tmax, Cmax, AUCinf and heart rate for each treatment. The AUCinf area is based on plasma data corrected for background nicotine (time zero sample). Each subject's rating of subjective effects using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) on a palm top computer, anchored with "not at all" to "extremely". VAS scores will be obtained at the plasma concentrations sampling time points up to 30 minutes for: craving intensity overall "product strength" (head rush, "buzz", "hit", feeling alert) increased salivation burning sensation in the mouth and/or throat