Researchers have developed a vaccine that fights heroin highs, and they’ve proved its potential in animal trials, according to a Scripps Research Institute statement. Heroin use and addiction costs the United States an estimated $22 billion in losses of productivity, criminal activity, medical care and social welfare. Injection drug use is also a high-risk mode of HIV transmission. The vaccine works by stopping not only heroin but also other psychoactive compounds metabolized from the drug from reaching the brain. The Scripps research team has begun a partnership with Walter Reed Army Institute of Research to examine the feasibility of developing a dual purpose HIV and heroin addiction vaccine.

To read the Scripps statement, click here.