The cancer vaccine race is on

THE rare good news from Covid is that the pandemic has spawned new cancer vaccine research and trials.

Prospects of success appear to be good. BioNTech co-founders Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci, who lead the way with messenger RNA (mRNA) Covid vaccines, predict that by 2030, similar immunisations will be anti-cancer treatments. That would be a boon to the world, as the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that some 10 million people die of cancer each year, second only to cardiac disease.

When the pandemic engulfed the world, BioNTech partnered with Pfizer to apply Tureci and Sahin’s mRNA know-how, and create a Covid vaccine. Success against the Covid pandemic boosted the company’s finances to research and develop mRNA and other technologies to counter cancer and diseases such as tuberculosis and shingles. Moderna, the US biotech company, which also produces Covid vaccines, is applying similar techniques to beat cancer.