Anti-nicotine abuse vaccines in the pipeline: an update

Three different companies have completed Phase II clinical studies of their anti-nicotine vaccines and are rushing to obtain regulatory approval and to bring their vaccine candidates to the market. The vaccines are composed of the nicotine molecule linked to a carrier protein and an adjuvant. The results in all three clinical studies are encouraging. Preliminary results seem to indicate that subjects with high anti-nicotine antibody levels demonstrate high quit rates and that the vaccines appear to be compatible with and complementary to approved forms of smoking cessation therapies. The data available do not yet allow us to give definitive results for long-term quit rates. We expect the vaccines to appear on the market during a time window between 2009 and 2011.