Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said his company’s experimental melanoma vaccine could be available by 2025, marking a historic step in the fight against the most serious form of skin cancer.

In 2020 alone, there were an estimated 325,000 new cases and 57,000 deaths from the disease worldwide. “We believe the product could be launched on an accelerated basis in some countries by 2025,” he said in an interview.

Vaccine against deadliest form of skin cancer could be available by 2025, Moderna CEO says – Photo: Pixabay

Unlike conventional vaccines, so-called therapeutic vaccines treat disease rather than prevent it. But they also work by training the human body’s immune system against the invading agent.

According to Bancel, therapeutic vaccines currently represent the real hope in oncology, “immunotherapy 2.0.”

Moderna’s projects received a boost on Thursday (14) thanks to the latest clinical trial results that show improved chances of survival with the vaccine.

The technology used is messenger RNA (mRNA), which has proven to be very effective against severe forms of Covid-19.

In a study of 157 people with advanced melanoma, the Moderna vaccine combined with Merck’s immunotherapy drug Keytruda reduced the risk of recurrence or death in 49% of cases over three years. , compared to Keytruda’s one-man administration.

Approval of a skin cancer vaccine

Existing clinical trials could form the basis for conditional approval of a vaccine known as mRNA-4157m, Bancel said.

In this scenario, a larger 1,000-person “phase 3” study that Moderna would conduct in 2024 could confirm the previous conditional approval.

Both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency have placed the therapy under accelerated review.

Vaccine development begins by sequencing the genome of each patient’s tumor and identifying the specific mutations to be coded for. This is an example of “individualized” medicine, tailored “just to the person being treated,” Bancel said.

Stage 3

On Monday (11), the company announced the start of a “phase 3” trial of an mRNA vaccine against lung cancer and is studying other types of tumors.

Bancel hopes to combine these cancer vaccines with “liquid biopsies,” innovative tests that look for signs of tumors through a blood test that are already becoming available in the United States.

The faster cancer is detected, the better Moderna’s new drugs will work, Bancel says.

Other companies, such as BioNTech, are also working on personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines.