A new theory to combat drug addition seems to be making progress lately. Substituted synthetic drugs, which mimic the effects of hard core drugs but stimulate the mind and trick it into thinking it has covered the need for a fix. There have been several such drugs in the past, but the newest drugs using this battle tactic on the war on drugs are blazing a trail in innovative medicine. It could be another big win for the pharmaceutical industry as well. Sales of such drugs are predicted to skyrocket in the future as the war on drugs continues. One such drug, a new vaccine could treat problems with drug abuse, as clinical trials are almost complete in Europe. Cantab Pharmaceuticals has the product they call Xenova. http://www.xenova.co.uk/ Originally this product was produced by ImmuLogic a start-up in Waltham, MA, which sold their rights to the drug. The FDA seems to have a little tougher time going for approval than our across the pond counter part agencies. In the United States the new technologies and sensors are helping authorities find more and more drug smugglers and the crack down on gangs is helping catch more dealers and users. As these folks are caught, rehabilitation for drug users will become of even greater concern as the rehab success rates are in the low 20 percentiles. The concept behind Xenova is interesting and it takes the new theory of replacement synthetic drugs one step further. The vaccine is to overcome the fact that cocaine molecules are too small to be recognized by the immune system, so it couples a slightly modified form of the drug to a protein. The protein is called Cholera toxin-b sub unit. This is registered by the immune system as a foreign substance. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/370663.stm and many top clinics and researchers are giving it the thumbs up, while some critics are quite alarmed at its possible widespread use in the near future and some in the scientific community are skeptical, but others think this solution makes quite a bit of sense; http://www.yale.edu/opa/v28.n24/story1.html . http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/03/000309075053.htm . It is thought that the same drug may work on any "ine" drugs as well such as; Caffeine, nicotine and morphine addictions. If not such a methodology appears to have no scientific end to it and perhaps we could rid all humans of drug abuse problems. The future looks bright for such pharmaceuticals in the future, we shall see how well this works. |
