The Bet is a public-private partnership between the NIH, the nonprofit NIH Foundation, researchers, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, advocacy groups, philanthropic organizations and patients.
Stacey Adam, the foundation’s senior clinical manager, told the Times she hopes it will be like the collaboration that produced COVID shots.
Cancer vaccines, unlike most other vaccines, are treatments, not preventative measures.
Vaccine stocks rallied Friday after a report on new details on a national initiative to speed up personalized cancer vaccines.
Novavax (NVAX) closed up about 16% to near $13, Moderna (MRNA) up about 14% to near $225, and Vaxcyte (PCVX) up about 10%. BioNTech (BNTX) was up about 5%, Merck (MRK) was up about 2%, and Pfizer (PFE) was up just over 2%.
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Moderna had a second tailwind: it joined the Nasdaq-100 before the market opened. Vaxcyte was already higher this week according to its own pneumococcal vaccine data. Novavax does not have a cancer vaccine program but a vaccine platform, and the stock moved on sympathy buying.
NCI aims to start partnership in December
National Cancer Institute Director Dr. Anthony Letai wants a national effort behind vaccines, The New York Times reported Friday. “We can bet big on new ideas,” he said of new resources from the National Institutes of Health.
The Bet is a public-private partnership between the NIH, the nonprofit NIH Foundation, researchers, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, advocacy groups, philanthropic organizations and patients. Stacey Adam, the foundation’s senior clinical manager, told the newspaper she hopes it will be like the collaboration that produced COVID shots.
She said the program is expected to begin in December, starting with pancreatic, liver and colorectal cancers, as well as a subset of pediatric tumors. Adam’s goal is that within seven to 10 years, a patient can receive a vaccine in a doctor’s office, faster than the eight to 15 years she says approval can take when the work is fragmented.
Merck, Moderna and BioNTech already have trials
Cancer vaccines, unlike most other vaccines, are treatments, not preventative measures. Each is designed for a patient and aims to train T cells to attack abnormal proteins found on that person’s tumor and nowhere else. Most use mRNA, a technology that the paper said has fallen out of favor with the Trump administration.
The most advanced cancer vaccine is Merck and Moderna’s personalized mRNA vaccine, autogenous intismeran, also known as V940. In a study of 1,137 people with advanced melanoma, the companies said in August that the shot and Keytruda extended the time before the cancers returned and spread.
Gn Health
