AP and NEJM on potential hay fever vaccine

As regular visitors are aware, we're more than a bit reluctant to join the hype over whatever the next breakthrough vaccine is said to be. As the newly licensed vaccines over the past year have shown, getting a product from the lab to the doctor's office takes a few decades and, while not necessarily a good thing, fewer than a half dozen companies are capable of guiding vaccines through the large Phase III clinical trials. So when a story appears that refers to a vaccine trial with fewer than 100 research participants for a product made by a company you've never heard of, it's a safe bet that the vaccine in question has a long road to travel.

However, we've seen that news about nicotine vaccines and the like are of interest to many. So with that disclaimer in mind, here's a story from the Associated Press (where 'dummy pills' is apparently now an acceptable synonym for 'placebo') about a vaccine in development to lessen the symptoms of hay fever. The story piggybacks on a report in this week's New England Journal of Medicine of a 25-subject clinical trial (free abstract, subscription required for full access).