Key points from article :
Pharmaceutical company Moderna is confident about offering such treatments within five years.
"I think we will be able to offer personalised cancer vaccines against multiple different tumour types to people around the world.” - Dr Paul Burton, chief medical officer of Moderna.
Covid-19 vaccine success has accelerated research in other disease areas.
“There has been a massive acceleration, not just of traditional vaccine technologies, but also novel ones that hadn’t previously been taken through licensure." - Dr Filip Dubovsky, president of R&D at Novavax
mRNA-based therapies show potential for rare diseases currently without drugs.
Scientists warn that continued high-level investment is necessary to maintain progress.
mRNA-based cancer vaccines can alert the immune system to destroy cancer without harming healthy cells.
Moderna's mRNA vaccine for RSV received breakthrough therapy designation from the FDA.
Pfizer is conducting a late-stage clinical trial for an mRNA-based influenza vaccine and has plans for other infectious diseases.
