Vladimir Putin says Russia is ‘very close’ to creating cancer vaccine

President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday (local time) that Russian scientists are close to creating vaccines for cancer that could soon be available to patients.

Putin said in televised comments that “we have come very close to the creation of so-called cancer vaccines and immunomodulatory drugs for the new generation”.

“I hope that soon these will be used effectively as methods of personalized medicine,” he said, speaking at a Moscow forum on future technologies.

Putin did not specify which types of cancer the proposed vaccines would target, nor how.

Many countries and companies are working on cancer vaccines.

Last year, the UK government signed a deal with Germany-based BioNTech to begin clinical trials providing “personalized cancer treatments,” with the goal of reaching 10,000 patients by 2030.

Pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck & Co. are developing an experimental cancer vaccine, with a mid-stage study showing that the chance of recurrence or death from melanoma – the deadliest skin cancer – will be halved after three years of treatment. .

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

During the coronavirus pandemic, Russia developed its own Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 and sold it to several countries, though domestically it has faced widespread public reluctance toward vaccination.

Putin himself said that he took Sputnik to assure people of its efficacy and safety.

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