Accelerated by new crown vaccine research, humans may be able to win the battle against cancer within ten years.
Last Sunday, local time, the co-founders of the German biotechnology company BioNTech, Wu Shaxin and Ozlem Tiregi, said in an interview that mRNA vaccine technology can be used to help destroy cancer cells, which means Cancer vaccines could be available by 2030.
BioNTech is a German biotechnology company that develops and manufactures effective immunotherapies for the treatment of serious diseases in specific patients.
BioNTech had been working on mRNA cancer vaccines before the COVID-19 outbreak.
But after the global spread of the epidemic, the company turned to developing a new crown vaccine.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the mRNA vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and Bio-Tech was the first COVID-19 vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
At the time, the vaccine showed 91 percent effectiveness and has since been shown to reduce hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19.
In addition, Moderna's mRNA new crown vaccine has also been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration FDA for emergency use authorization, which directly promotes mRNA vaccines to become a hot spot in the world. In 2021, the MIT Technology Review "Top Ten Global Breakthrough Technologies" list That is mRNA vaccine.
After that, many pharmaceutical companies entered the bureau, hoping to expand the indications of mRNA vaccines to other infectious diseases, tumors and other fields.
One of the possible effects of the pandemic, scientists say, is to accelerate the creation of cancer vaccines.
According to BioNTech's website, the company now has several cancer vaccines in clinical trials.
It has more than 30 product pipelines, about 15 related to oncology, and it is developing treatments for rectal cancer, melanoma and other cancer types.
Wu Shaxin said that the successful development of a new crown vaccine by Pfizer and BioNTech also promoted the company's work in developing cancer vaccines.
According to industry insiders, tumor vaccines can be classified into preventive tumor vaccines and therapeutic tumor vaccines.
Among them, the most typical and widely known preventive tumor vaccine is the HPV vaccine, which prevents cervical cancer.
However, as a therapeutic vaccine, it is still difficult to develop mRNA cancer vaccines.
Unlike traditional vaccines made from weaker versions of the virus, mRNA technology uses only the virus' genetic code, said Vaccine expert Taurina.
When mRNA enters the body, it also enters the cell, causing it to make the relevant antigen.
Therefore, there is no breakthrough in the mechanism of vaccine action of mRNA vaccines, that is, the intensity of stimulating the immune system is much greater. Whether it can become the signature of cancer vaccines remains to be tested in practice.
In addition, because the cancer cells that make up a tumor may contain many different proteins, it is extremely difficult to create a vaccine that targets all cancer cells but not healthy tissue.
"The immune mechanism of vaccines is to use the immune system's immune response against aliens. The immune system also has an immune mechanism against the traitorous self-cancer cells, but it is different from that against aliens. Therefore, the principle of vaccines is based on the mechanism against aliens. , To develop a cancer vaccine targeting your own cells, there are mechanical limitations, which is very difficult here." Tao Lina further explained.
Regarding the timing and effectiveness of the vaccine, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily contacted BioNTech, but has not received a reply as of press time.
But BioNTech is cautious.
Tillegi said that as a scientist, it is not easy to "cure" cancer, but many breakthroughs have been made.
In fact, there are already companies deploying cancer vaccines before.
In April 2010, the FDA approved the first therapeutic vaccine, Provenge, for the treatment of prostate cancer.
But Provenge did not bring subversive effects.
Clinical trial results showed that compared to the control group, Provenge only extended the overall survival of patients by 4.1 months.
But Provenge's sales fell short of expectations, and its research and development company Dendreon ended in bankruptcy.
Because Provenge is generally effective, but expensive.
Provenge is an autologous cellular immunotherapy, which requires the use of the patient's own immune cells to manufacture.
Abiraterone and enzalutamide, which also treat prostate cancer, were launched in 2011 and 2012, respectively, at half the price of Provenge.
It is worth noting that, in addition to BioNTech, in the field of mRNA drug therapy, companies such as Moderna, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Sterling Microbiology, and Aibo Bio have all established layouts.
As of March 31, 2022, a total of 56 mRNA drugs have entered the clinical pipeline in the world, and research and development are mainly concentrated in the field of vaccines.
According to the Pharmsnap data platform of Wisdom Buds' global new drug intelligence database, BioNTech and Moderna are two companies at the forefront.
According to reports, in mid-October, Moderna announced that it will cooperate with the international pharmaceutical company Merck to jointly develop and sell a personalized precision cancer vaccine, promoting the combination of Moderna's mRNA technology and Merck's PD-1 tumor therapy Keytruda (K drug). Explore treatments for high-risk melanoma patients.
Under the agreement, Merck will pay Moderna $250 million.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Fang Binnan Zhao Tianshu