From Drug Researcher.com:
Novartis has acquired global rights to an anti-smoking vaccine, developed by Swiss company Cytos Biotechnology, in a deal that could generate up to CHF 600m (€370m).
Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis gets worldwide exclusive rights for CYT002-NicQb, a therapeutic vaccine in clinical development for the treatment of nicotine addiction.
Phase II trials of the potentially first-in-class vaccine have indicated that the drug could stimulate abstinence from smoking in patients who achieved high antibody levels following vaccination, Novartis said.
The compound is set to enter Phase III trials in late 2008.
NicQb is one of several therapeutic vaccines being developed by Cytos using its Immunodrug technology. The drug acts by inducing the body to develop antibodies that bind specifically to nicotine molecules in the bloodstream. The resulting complex is then too large to get through the blood-brain barrier, and therefore reducing the uptake of the highly addictive nicotine.
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