Nabi: Pharmaceutical Giants Should Cough Up for Smoking Vaccine

Posted on: Friday, 25 July 2008, 12:01 CDT Positive interim results, assessing the antibody response and safety of a 400mcg, six-dose immunization schedule of Nabi Biopharmaceuticals' NicVAX, provide a new indication of the vaccine's potential to treat nicotine addiction and prevent smoking relapse. These results make the product a more attractive licensing proposition as Nabi gears up to initiate pivotal Phase III trials. The open-label Phase II study in 35 patients evaluated whether a new dosing schedule would improve anti-nicotine antibody stimulation. The new schedule, which included an additional injection at three months, resulted in more than 80% of subjects achieving the target antibody level at 14 weeks, compared to 50% of subjects in the Phase IIb proof of concept study. In addition, the revised schedule was well... [read full story]