According to Biontech
Moderna plans to launch a cancer vaccine by 2030
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The pharmaceutical company Moderna wants to bring vaccines on the market to fight cancer by 2030. The mRNA technique is to be used for this purpose. Biontech is also researching such a vaccine.
At least since the corona pandemic, everyone has known the so-called mRNA technology, on the basis of which the pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Biontech developed their corona vaccines. This technology is now also to be used in vaccines that could be effective against cancer. By 2030, the US biotechnology company Moderna wants to have individualized vaccines against cancer on the market, Paul Burton, Moderna’s chief medical officer, told the British Guardian. He believes Moderna will be able to bring personalized cancer vaccines to people around the world against multiple different types of tumors. This could save “hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives.”
However, it is not yet to be expected that the vaccines will completely replace current cancer therapies. They should act as a supplement and, for example, recognize and destroy cancer cells that are left over after a tumor has been removed.
How does mRNA technology against cancer work?
The basis of an individual vaccination against cancer with mRNA technology is based on the removal of tissue samples from the tumor and healthy cells. The laboratory then examines which proteins distinguish the two cell types. A protein typical of the cancer cells is then inoculated using mRNA technology, an immune reaction is to be elicited in which the body defends itself against the cancer cells. dr Andreas Radbruch, immunologist and scientific director of the German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin, explains in an interview with t-online: “This technology makes it possible to produce a vaccine that is individually tailored to each patient very quickly and precisely exploits the small differences between cancer cells and healthy body cells.”
Biontech also wants to start clinical studies this year
The pharmaceutical company Biontech has already announced that it is researching a vaccine against cancer. According to press release A large-scale clinical study on personalized mRNA cancer immunotherapy is said to have been agreed for 2023 in Great Britain. This means that the cancer vaccine could be generally available before 2030, explained Biontech founder Ugur Sahin in an interview with the BBC. He continued, “We feel that curing cancer or changing the lives of cancer patients is within our grasp.”
First success in the fight against melanoma
A first success in the fight against malignant melanoma Moderna scored last December with an mRNA vaccine, like a study showed. In combination with another cancer drug, the risk of dying or falling ill again within a certain period of time fell by around 44 percent.
In addition to the personalized vaccines against cancer Plan Moderna vaccines also against heart, circulatory, autoimmune diseases and against all common respiratory infections. It should then be possible to cover several respiratory infections with a single injection. The range of therapies should begin in five years.
Sources: The Guardian, BBC, t-online.de