Patients with non-small cell lung cancer will become the second group for whom a personalized mRNA vaccine will be created, according to Aleksandr Ginzburg, the Director of the N. F. Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology. He previously stated that volunteers with melanoma would receive the first batch of the drug in the fall.
“If everything goes well with the first vaccine in terms of organizational and scientific expectations, this drug will be created for non-small cell lung cancer, which is the second nosology in line,” TASS quoted Ginzburg as saying.
According to the existing work plan, he said, cancer patients with melanoma will be the first to receive the drug in September or October.
Last week, Ginzburg said that the Russian Ministry of Health had approved a plan for the experimental use of the Russian personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, adding that other countries have already expressed interest in the Russian development.
The mRNA vaccine was developed through a collaboration between the Gamaleya Center, the N.N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center, and the P. Hertsen Moscow Oncology Research Institute. The drug is created for each patient individually, taking into account their disease’s characteristics. In preclinical studies, mRNA cancer vaccines have shown promise in both suppressing tumor development and reducing the likelihood of metastasis.
According to Andrei Kaprin, Chief Oncologist at the Ministry of Health, the government will incur a cost of 300,000 rubles to produce the drug, but it will be provided to patients free of charge.
