Moderna expects to have cancer vaccine within 5 years

The COVID-19 epidemic has accelerated the development of vaccines, and Moderna Pharmaceuticals stated that it is confident that it will make vaccines suitable for cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases before 2030. Pfizer will also cooperate with BioNTech to develop vaccines against infectious diseases such as herpes zoster.

The British “Guardian” (The Guardian) reported that Moderna’s (Moderna) chief medical officer Paul Burton (Paul Burton) said that he believes that Moderna is expected to provide such drugs for “various disease areas” in just five years. therapy.

Moderna, which developed mRNA (messaging ribonucleic acid) vaccines during the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) outbreak, is currently working on developing cancer vaccines for different tumor types.

“We’re going to have this vaccine, it’s going to be very effective and it’s going to save hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of lives,” Burton said. Developing cancer vaccines.”

He also said that in the future, a single dose of vaccine can prevent multiple respiratory infections and protect vulnerable groups from COVID-19, influenza and respiratory fusion virus (RSV); Rare diseases for which there is no effective drug treatment. mRNA therapy works by teaching cells to make a protein that triggers the body’s immune response to disease.

“I think what we’ve learned in recent months is that if you used to think that mRNA could only be used for infectious diseases, or only for COVID-19, the evidence available shows that’s absolutely not the case … it can be applied,” Burton said. across a variety of disease areas; we’re doing research in cancer, infectious disease, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disease, rare disease, all of which show great promise.”

In January of this year, Moderna announced the results of a late-stage trial of an experimental mRNA vaccine against respiratory fusion virus, which was 83.7% effective in preventing at least two symptoms (such as cough and fever) in adults over 60 years old. Based on this data, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has identified the vaccine as a “breakthrough therapy” and will receive accelerated review.

In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration designated Moderna’s customized cancer vaccine as a “breakthrough therapy” based on the results of recent trials in patients with the skin cancer melanoma.

In addition, Pfizer has also begun to recruit personnel for late-stage clinical trials of influenza vaccines developed with mRNA technology, and has cooperated with German biotechnology company BioNTech to focus on other infectious diseases such as herpes zoster.

A Pfizer spokesperson said: “What we have learned from the COVID-19 vaccine development process has given us a better understanding of the overall approach to mRNA development and how Pfizer does it more broadly. We have learned the equivalent of 10 years in just 1 year.” scientific knowledge.”