Putin Says Russia Close to Developing Cancer Vaccine – February 14, 2024 at 5:40 pm

Russian scientists are close to developing a cancer vaccine that could soon be available to patients, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.

“We are very close to creating a so-called cancer vaccine and a new generation of immunomodulatory drugs,” Mr. Putin said in televised remarks.

“I hope that they will soon be used effectively as personalized therapies,” he added at the Moscow Forum on Future Technologies.

Mr. Putin did not specify which types of cancer the proposed vaccines would target or how.

Many countries and companies are working on cancer vaccines. Last year, the British government signed an agreement with the German company BioEntech to start clinical trials providing “personalized cancer treatment” with the aim of reaching 10,000 patients by 2030.

Pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck & Co. are developing an experimental cancer vaccine that, in mid-phase studies, has shown to halve the risk of recurrence or death from melanoma — the deadliest skin cancer — after three years of treatment.

According to the World Health Organization, there are currently six approved vaccines against human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes many cancers, including cervical cancer, as well as vaccines against hepatitis B (HBV), which can lead to liver cancer.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Russia developed its own Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 and sold it to several countries, although it faced general public reluctance to take the vaccine.

Putin himself said he took the Sputnik vaccine to ensure its effectiveness and safety. (Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan, William McLean)