Celtic Pharmaceutical has announced that approval has been granted in the UK to start a Phase II trial of TA-NIC, a vaccine being developed for the treatment of nicotine addiction. The trial is a placebo controlled, multicenter study, designed to assess the efficacy and safety of TA-NIC in maintaining smoking cessation when given in conjunction with current standard support treatments.

TA-NIC is a therapeutic vaccine in development for the treatment of nicotine addiction. Anti-nicotine antibodies, which the vaccine is designed to raise, bind to nicotine in the bloodstream. Since antibodies are too large to cross the blood-brain barrier, bound nicotine should be prevented from getting to the brain. Consequently, the pleasurable stimulus which usually accompanies smoking should be absent or reduced.