Tobacco.org

Nabi/GlaxoSmithKline: deal reignites confidence in nicotine vaccine approach 

In securing GlaxoSmithKline's signature, Nabi Biopharmaceuticals has gained the perfect Big Pharma partner to support its NicVAX program. Although Phase III development remains Nabi's responsibility, it provides a timely boost to the validity of the approach, following the recent set-back experienced by Novartis and Cytos with their own nicotine vaccine, NIC-002.

Under a global option and licensing agreement, GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay Nabi an upfront non-refundable fee of $40m for NicVAX, an investigational vaccine for the treatment of nicotine addiction and the prevention of smoking relapse, while also receiving an option to develop a second-generation nicotine vaccine using Nabi's intellectual property. Nabi will continue to be responsible for the costs of the Phase III development, while upon successful completion, GSK will take responsibility for further development and commercialization of NicVAX.

In a move away from traditional nicotine replacement and agonist therapies, nicotine vaccines are the most prevalent drug class in the late-stage nicotine dependence pipeline. A

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