Russia Develops mRNA Cancer Biologic

Russia’s Ministry of Health announced last week that it has developed an mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) therapeutic biologic for cancer. A name for the shot has not yet been revealed, but it will cost the government about 300,000 rubles per dose—the equivalent of $2,869. The mRNA cancer biologic  will be made available to the public in early 2025 and will be distributed to Russian citizens free of cost.^{1 2 3 4 5 6}

“This vaccine aims to treat cancer patients rather than prevent tumor formation,” said oncologist Andrey Kaprin, MD, PhD, director of the Ministry of Health’s Radiology Medical Research Center in Moscow..^{1 2}

Several research centers partnered to develop the new mRNA drug, including teams from the Radiology Medical Research Center, Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Herzen Moscow Cancer Research Institute, and Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology.²

In an interview with Russia’s top news agency, TASS, Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, said:

Now it takes quite a long time to build [personalized vaccines] because computing using a vaccine, or customized mRNA, should look like using matrix methods, in mathematical terms. We have involved the Ivannikov Institute, which will rely on AI in doing this math, namely neural network computing, where these procedures should take about half an hour to an hour.^{1 3}

Gintsburg, who is a microbiologist, confirmed that pre-clinical trials for the biologic had shown that it suppresses tumor development and potentially prevents metastasizing.³

U.S. Also Developing mRNA Cancer Biologic

Other countries are working on mRNA biologics for cancer, including the United States. Earlier this year, The Vaccine Reaction reported on an mRNA cancer biologic developed at the University of Florida. According to a study published in the journal Cell, results of the first-in-human clinical trial for the therapeutic biologic had shown it had successfully reprogrammed the immune systems of four adult glioblastoma patients’ to attack the malignant brain tumors.^{4 7 8}

Some Western scientists have expressed skepticism about the new Russian mRNA cancer biologic. “Until we see data from a clinical trial, there has to be skepticism about this,” said immunologist Kingston Mills, PhD of Trinity College Dublin in Ireland.”⁶ He noted:

There’s nothing in scientific journals that I can see about it. That’s where you usually would start reading, as a scientist, about a breakthrough. I don’t see any paper about this, so I have nothing to go on in terms of what the science is.⁶

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