Clinical trials of a new personalized mRNA vaccine for cancer therapy are ready to be launched after the successful completion of the volunteer recruitment stage. This was reported by Andrey Kaprin, Director General of the National Medical Research Radiological Centre (NMRRC) of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.
The development of the innovative drug was carried out by a joint group of specialists from the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, the Herzen Moscow Oncology Research Institute, and the Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology. The start of trials is scheduled for September of this year. Primary testing of the drug is planned to be carried out on patients diagnosed with melanoma and small cell lung cancer.
In the future, the research team intends to expand the range of application of personalized mRNA vaccines to include the treatment of malignant neoplasms of the kidneys, mammary glands, and pancreas. According to the results of the preclinical phase of studies, the vaccine demonstrated the ability to inhibit the growth of neoplasms.
The peculiarity of the drug is that it will be created personally for a specific patient using a special mRNA platform. According to Kaprin, each such case will cost the state budget 300,000 rubles.
