Putin says Russia is close to creating cancer vaccines.
"I hope that soon they will be effectively used as methods of individual therapy," the Russian president stated at a Moscow forum on future technologies.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russian scientists are close to creating cancer vaccines that could soon be available to patients.
Putin said in televised comments that "we have come very close to creating so-called cancer vaccines and a new generation of immunomodulatory drugs."
"I hope that soon they will be effectively used as methods of individual therapy," he added, speaking at a Moscow forum on future technologies. Putin did not specify which types of cancer the proposed vaccines would target, nor how.
Several countries and companies are working on cancer vaccines. Last year, the UK government signed an agreement with Germany-based BioNTech to launch clinical trials that provide "personalized cancer treatments," aiming to reach 10.000 patients by 2030.
Pharmaceutical companies Moderna and MSD are developing an experimental cancer vaccine that, according to a mid-stage study, halved the chance of recurrence or death from melanoma -- the deadliest form of skin cancer -- after three years of treatment.
Currently, there are six licensed vaccines against human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes many types of cancer, including cervical cancer, according to the World Health Organization, as well as vaccines against hepatitis B (HBV), which can lead to liver cancer.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Russia developed its own Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19 and sold it to several countries, although domestically it faced widespread public reluctance to be vaccinated. Putin himself said he had taken the Sputnik vaccine in an attempt to reassure the population of its effectiveness and safety.