Xenova progress treating addicts

TESTS on an anti-addiction drug that kills the buzz of taking cocaine have had impressive results, pharmaceuticals company Xenova said.

The treatment is a vaccine that causes antibodies blocking the drug's access to the brain to develop, preventing the dangerously addictive high. It is aimed at powder cocaine and the more dangerous crack cocaine derivative.

Of the small test group of addicts trying to kick their habits, 75% stayed off the drugs for 12 weeks - many more than the usual number in such programmes.

The tests were carried out on patients who had stayed clean for two weeks before starting the programme. A test on users who had not kept off the drugs beforehand found that 58% stayed off for 12 weeks, still said to be a very high number.

Chief executive David Oxlade said: 'You have to interpret with caution but the clinic's management are saying there is a clear pattern where the addicts are saying they do not get the high, and that helps them become abstinent and stay abstinent.'

The tests were carried out on only 22 patients. Oxlade said that bigger trials, currently being conducted with 130 patients, will not finish for 18 months.