Scientists Are Making a Fentanyl Vaccine. It Won’t Solve the Overdose Crisis.

published on November 29, 2022 by Manisha Krishnan in VICE

A group of researchers is developing a vaccine that would block the effects of fentanyl in an effort to combat the overdose crisis.

But experts worry the drug could be used coercively and distracts from solutions that already work, including medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction and a safer supply of drugs.

A team at the University of Houston is currently working on a vaccine that would create anti-fentanyl antibodies in a person, preventing them from feeling high if they consumed the synthetic opioid. The drug has already been shown to be effective in lab rats, with minimal side effects, according to a paper published in Pharmaceutics in October. Scientists are now hopeful that the FDA will approve starting clinical trials in humans.

If approved, a patient would receive one dose of the vaccine and two boosters…