The new method keeps nicotine from reaching the brain, thus making smoking less pleasurable and easier to give up. However the small amount that still manages to get in helps to ease withdrawal, the main reason most quitters relapse.
If successful, the vaccine could become part of a new generation of anti- smoking treatments. They modus operandi includes attacking dependency in the brain instead of just replacing the nicotine from cigarettes in a less harmful way, like the gum, lozenges, patches and nasal sprays sold today.
Pfizer Inc.'s Chantix, is one such drug that would soon be available in the market. Another, Sanofi-Aventis SA's Acomplia, recently won approval in Europe as a weight-loss drug.
If U.S. regulators follow suit, some doctors say they also will use it to help smokers quit, especially those concerned about gaining weight. NicVax, by Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, a Boca Raton, Fla., biotech company with labs in Rockville, Md., is most advanced among the vaccines.
After four smaller studies suggested it might be safe and effective, the new, larger study was started in Madison, Minneapolis, Omaha, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and New York City.
The Food and Drug Administration has granted the vaccine fast-track status, that means it will get prompt review, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse has also granted a second $4 million grant to Nabi for financing the study and NicVax's development.
A survey suggests that there are more than 48 million smokers in the United States, out of which 40 percent each year make a serious attempt to quit, but fewer than 5 percent succeed long-term.
Though Nicotine replacement products combined with counseling can double that rate, but most quitters don't try them and almost two-thirds go back to smoking within a month.
