Any man who drinks three nightly pints of beer, or woman consuming two glasses of wine should be prescribed a pill, according to new plans announced by the U.K.'s National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
The drug, a £3 tablet of nalmefene, could be prescribed to an estimated 750,000 Brits, The Telegraph reported. If any of these "mild alcoholics" is unable to taper off their drinking within two weeks, then NICE has directed physicians to prescribe the medicine, according to the report.
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Nalmafene, which is made by Lundbeck under the trade name Selincro, is "taken when people feel the urge to have a drink and stops them from wanting more than one," The Telegraph said.
The plans are expected to cost £288 million (about $459.47 million), and the National Health Service (NHS) and local groups are required to provide any funding within three months, The Telegraph reported.
Some are worried that the new prescription recommendation may tax NHS funds.
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"We need to think very carefully about how we use limited resources and prescribe for people who with relatively simple population interventions such as reducing advertising and minimum unit price could quite easily reduce alcohol consumption to safer levels," Mark Bellis, alcohol lead for the Faculty of Public Health, told The Telegraph.