Vaccine to Help You Quit Smoking
In this day of modern medicine, we’ve managed to product a number of vaccines to keep us from getting ill. Could this same idea be applied to smoking? The folks over at Nabi Biopharmaceuticals seem to think so.
The company has created what they are calling NicVAX – a vaccine designed to help you quit smoking.
According to their website at nabi.com, NicVAX is:
…an investigational vaccine designed as an aid to smoking cessation, as well as an aid to prevent relapses of a treated smoker.
NicVAX esseintially works directly on countering the effects of nicitone, thus curbing the addiction.
NicVAX is designed to stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies that bind to nicotine in the bloodstream and prevent it from crossing the blood-brain barrier and entering the brain.
What really gives this vacinne the edge over traditional aids for quitting smoking is the length of time the vaccine has effect.
We believe NicVAX has advantages over existing treatment therapies because its effect is irreversible for potentially six to 12 months following vaccination as antibodies to nicotine continue to be produced by the body’s immune system. This is important due to the extremely high relapse rate that has been observed when a smoker attempts to quit smoking. Currently, smokers being treated for nicotine addiction can stop using their therapy and resume their addiction.
Although not yet released to the public, NicVAX, if effective, could very well change the anti-smoking game and give people an amazing