Russia’s Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA) has received approval for the clinical use of Oncorna, an innovative personalized neoantigen mRNA vaccine for treating colorectal cancer, the agency’s press service said. The drug is the second personalized cancer vaccine for this type of cancer in the FMBA’s portfolio.
The vaccine was developed by specialists at the FMBA’s Centre for Strategic Planning and the Lopukhin Federal Research and Clinical Centre for Physico-Chemical Medicine.
Oncorna is a personalized drug designed to activate specific anti-tumour immunity and is the first Russian vaccine against colorectal cancer based on an mRNA platform.
“Preclinical trials of the drug, as with the peptide therapeutic vaccine Oncopept, have fully confirmed its efficacy and safety,” said FMBA head Veronika Skvortsova. “The data obtained have allowed us to begin clinical use of the Oncorna vaccine.”
Oncorna is indicated for adults with metastatic colorectal cancer who have received two or more lines of systemic anti-tumour therapy, as well as for colorectal cancer with microsatellite instability (MSI-H) in combination with checkpoint inhibitors, the agency said.