German BioNTech, which developed one of the vaccines for COVID-19, says will begin the final trials of its vaccine against cancer diseases later this year.
The company is to use the mRNA technology, for which it got more money, since it is a technology that helped control the COVID-19 pandemic. Other companies are doing similar research.
BioNTech, which was founded in Germany but moved a large part of its operations to the UK last year, is working on vaccines against various diseases that humans tackle.
The German company gained worldwide popularity for its development of a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2, which was later implemented by the American Pfizer.
It was developed using the mRNA method. The technology, which, according to its creators, allows the body to learn to combat non-viral diseases as well, has been seen for years as a solution to the greatest problems for human health, such as, obesity. However, research on mRNA technology is time-consuming and costly.
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and work on the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus vaccine began in many places, BioNTech decided to use its previous work on mRNA to develop a vaccine against the new disease. The works proved successful, and similar effects were achieved by American Moderna.
Growing interest in mRNA technology
This success of works on the COVID-19 vaccine led to growing interest in mRNA technology in medicine, and facilitated raising funds for further research.
BioNTech’s mRNA cancer vaccine trials started long before the pandemic, and have shown some early encouraging signals.
„What we have developed over decades for cancer vaccine development has been the tailwind for developing the COVID-19 vaccine, and now the Covid-19 vaccine and our experience in developing it gives back to our cancer work,” said BioNTech co-founder Professor Özlem Türeci, explaining that „mRNA acts as a blueprint and allows you to tell the body to produce the drug or the vaccine … and when you use mRNA as a vaccine, the mRNA is a blueprint for the 'wanted poster’ of the enemy — in this case, cancer antigens which distinguish cancer cells from normal cells.”
„Every step, every patient we treat in our cancer trials helps us to find out more about what we are against and how to address that,” Prof Tureci, said.
„As scientists, we are always hesitant to say we will have a cure for cancer. We have a number of breakthroughs and we will continue to work on them.”
BioNTech is not the only one
BioNTech’s research on the vaccine against skin cancer is already at the second clinical stage, which means it is being tested on a small group of people. Research on cancer vaccines is also conducted by Moderna (in cooperation with German Merck), in which 157 volunteers took part in the phase 2b test. This mRNA vaccine in combination with an antibody-based drug treatment of skin cancer has so far shown a 44% effectiveness.
Also, the German CureVac (which abandoned its work on its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine after the success of Pfizer and BioNTecv) is in the second phase of testing a vaccine for skin cancer. In total, three companies are currently testing 10 mRNA vaccines against various types of cancer.
For now, only BioNTech has announced preparations for the third phase of clinical trials, participated by thousands of volunteers. The trials are to start in September.
Unfortunately, they are not to end soon, since cancer – unlike viral diseases – tends to develop over years and is influenced by many complex factors. Therefore, the third phase of trials are expected to take at least a few years.
According to the other founder of BioNTech, Dr Uğur Şahin, an mRNA vaccine against skin cancer may not be available until around 2030, which he says is still a big acceleration.
BioNTech’s work on an mRNA cancer vaccine will receive a financial boost from a British NHS special vaccine fund. The point is that the future price of cancer vaccines should be affordable to the average citizen.