Alternative to chemotherapy

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BioNTech plans cancer vaccines before 2030

26.11.2023 | 12:01

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Can we hope for an alternative to chemotherapy in the fight against cancer soon? The head of the vaccine manufacturer BioNTech expects a vaccine before 2030.

BioNTech boss Ugur Sahin says: "We want to develop cancer immunotherapies so that the body's own defense system can fight cancer." (Archive image)

Source: dpa

In the fight against cancer, there could soon be hope for those affected. The vaccine manufacturer BioNTech assumes that the first tailor-made mRNA-based vaccines against cancer could be approved within the next few years. BioNTech boss Ugur Sahin said [to] "Bild am Sonntag":

We expect that our first mRNA-based cancer vaccines can be approved before 2030.

Ugur Sahin, BioNTech

In addition, it is planned to have "study data available for various other therapeutic approaches in the years 2025 to 2029." If they are positive, approval is possible according to the assessment of the BioNTech boss.

Through mRNA, the immune system should learn to recognize "high-personal" cancer cells and then fight them specifically. What is the current state of research?

Cancer therapy: BioNTech relies on the body's own defense system

Specifically, BioNTech's approach provides for cancer immunotherapy in which the body's own defense system can fight cancer.

"We believe that this is one of the central elements to control cancer in the long term or ideally to be able to cure it." In addition, there are already immunotherapies against various types of cancer in clinical development, explains Sahin and further explains:

For example, in breast cancer in the metastatic stage, in colon cancer after surgery, i.e. in the adjuvant stage, as well as in pancreatic cancer and lung cancer.

Prostate cancer is well curable if it is detected in time. This is possible with the so-called PSA value, which in Germany, however, is not paid by the health insurance companies.

BioNTech wants to provide individualized vaccine

The aim of BioNTech is to set up a company in such a way that it can technologically map all the necessary steps of a therapy within a short time. The BioNTech founder explains:

The goal is: We receive a blood and tumor sample of the patient and after four weeks we provide the individualized vaccine.

This should ideally be possible for tens of thousands of patients a year.

BioNTech had each made billions in profits in the past two years from proceeds from the vaccine against the coronavirus and now wants to promote the development of therapies, for example against cancer.

Source: ZDF