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July 9, 2001

“United States Clears Way for New Trial of Cocaine ‘Vaccine’”

Financial Times (www.ft.com) (07/09/01) P. 25; Cookson, Clive

As 900,000 people seek treatment for cocaine addiction in the United States alone each year, according to Xenova CEO David Oxlade, the Food and Drug Administration has approved continued clinical trials of the TA-CD vaccine against addiction to the drug.  The vaccine works by attaching antigenic proteins to cocaine that allows antibodies to clear the substance from the body before it can produce the desired high for drug users.  The trials had been suspended when a related Xenova product, a nicotine vaccine, caused eye irritation in preclinical animal tests; however, further tests indicated that the irritation was only in rabbits.  The clinical trials are being supported with about $1 million annually from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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