Britain urged to test cocaine addict vaccine

The government wants to harness an anti-addiction vaccine designed to cancel out the high experienced by users of cocaine and other drugs.

The medicine, invented by a Cambridge company, was discussed at a Whitehall meeting last month and officials hope UK trials can begin soon.

It is one of a new generation of treatments that could prove vital in fighting cocaine, heroin and other illicit drugs whose use is blamed for a £16 billion-a-year crime wave in Britain. The medicines may eventually be used to treat smokers and alcoholics as well.

TA-CD, the vaccine now drawing government interest, is already under trial in America, where the National Institute on Drug Abuse is pumping millions of dollars into its development. It is expected to be ready for use in treating cocaine addicts within three years.

Xenova, the company that invented the medicine, gave a presentation to officials from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Health and the Home Office. It is understood senior Downing Street advisers are taking a close interest in the American trials.

A DTI source said: “Xenova were invited to tell us about their US experience, but the real reason for the meeting was to find out why the vaccine wasn’t being trialled in the UK and work out what we could do about it.”

Professor Thomas Kosten, of the institute of psychiatry at Yale University, outlined his research into the medicine’s effect on 130 volunteers. Professor Anthony David of the Mental Health Research Network was also present. He said: “[We are] keen to faciliate high quality large scale clinical trials in this area.”

In addition to TA-CD, other drugs under trial for use against addiction include Rimonabant, a drug that is expected to be licensed soon for use against obesity in both America and Britain. Some experts believe that its method of stopping cravings for food could also be used to stop cravings for drugs.

Anti-addiction medicines would offer a novel approach to treating drug users, who usually rely on counselling and rehabilitation clinics. In future addicts could be ordered to take the vaccine by courts, or parents could give it to their children.

The most obvious benefit, however, would be for cocaine users who wish to break the habit — such as the model Kate Moss. Moss completed a 30-day detoxification programme in October and since then her rehabilitation in the public eye has been rapid. She is guest editor of the latest issue of French Vogue.

Cocaine, like heroin and nicotine, is a tiny molecule that, when in the bloodstream, is able to penetrate the brain’s protective layers. Inside the brain it interferes with the junctions between nerve cells, producing a high.

Xenova’s vaccine works by altering a user’s immune system so that it can recognise cocaine in the blood. The production of antibodies is stimulated that envelop the cocaine molecules, making them too large to cross into the brain.

However, before the vaccine can be licensed it will need to go through much bigger trials that will take at least two years to complete. Xenova said it had been encouraged by the initial results at Yale, which showed that 58% of patients given the vaccine had stopped using cocaine during the 12-week test period, while 42% of those taking the vaccine had stayed off the drug for more than six months.

If the trials of TA-CD are successful, Xenova hopes to win rapid approval for the drug from the US Food and Drug Administration. A spokesman for the company said: “This is a very powerful approach because once someone has been vaccinated they could have long-term immunity to the effects of such drugs.”

He speculated that if such treatments worked, the first target would be long-term addicts who wanted to be weaned off drugs, but after that there would be great interest from parents and the courts.

“In theory, a parent could have their children vaccinated so that they would never be tempted to start smoking or to take drugs,” he said. “It’s an interesting idea but it raises lots of ethical questions.”

However, a tendency to addiction is a personality trait and the vaccine may not be a panacea. Barry Everitt, professor of behavioural neuroscience at Cambridge University, believes just pre-empting the effects of cocaine will not always lead to a cure for addiction.

“A vaccine is a mechanism to stop the action of cocaine,” said Everitt. “It is not a cure for addiction in itself.”

The Sunday Times ~ December 04, 2005