A statistically significant number of patients treated with the NicVAX (Nicotine Conjugate Vaccine stopped smoking after one year.
Doctors now believe it could be an important new tool for people who have failed to quit on other methods. The results were presented Wednesday at an American Heart Association conference.
Manufactured by Nabi Biopharmaceuticals of Boca Raton, Fla., the vaccine designed to "immunize" smokers against the rush triggering their addiction. When a person is given shot of this vaccine, the nicotine does not reach the brain.
This takes the fun out of smoking and makes it easier to give up the habit in many cases. However, the shot is designed in such a way that some nicotine still gets in, possibly easing withdrawal, the main reason quitters relapse.
The study involved 301 longtime smokers in Minneapolis, Omaha, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, New York City and Madison, Wis.
Participants were given four or five shots within six months, at one of two doses, or dummy shots. Neither they nor their doctors knew who got what. The first shots "prime" the immune system while the later doses make it produce antibodies.
The antibodies further latch onto nicotine in the bloodstream and keep it from crossing the blood-brain barrier and maintaining the addiction.
In the trials, 14 percent on the lower dose and 16 percent on the higher dose of five shots had quit six months after volunteers received the last shot. Only 6 percent of those given four shots, or the fake vaccine, were off cigarettes, the Associated Press reports.
Dr. Stephen Rennard, Larson Professor of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center said, "This development is key for the field of smoking cessation research and could have a significant impact on how we treat patients with nicotine addiction."
"These quit rates are comparable to what's seen in other studies for things that are considered to work," Rennard added.
The Food and Drug Administration has granted the vaccine fast-track status, meaning it will soon be considered for a prompt view. Other similar vaccines in the midstage testing include TA-Nic, by Bermuda-based Celtic Pharmaceuticals, and NicQb, a product whose marketing rights Cytos Biotechnology AG recently sold to Switzerzland-based Novartis AG.
