Personalised cancer MRNA vaccine hailed by Melbourne scientists as the start of a ‘true breakthrough’

Pharmaceutical giant Moderna is hoping to fast-track a groundbreaking MRNA vaccine to make it available to cancer patients in Australia “in the next year or so”.

A personalised cancer MRNA vaccine – hailed by Melbourne scientists as the start of a “true breakthrough” – could be available to eligible Australians patients as soon as next year, with Moderna seeking approval.

It comes as the company revealed Australia could also be the first country to launch and access a groundbreaking MRNA vaccine against RSV, the most common cause of childhood respiratory infection, next year.

The company’s chief medical officer Dr Paul Burton said their RSV vaccine, which has undergone stage 3 clinical trials, “could actually be ready for Australian use in the winter of 2024”.

“Australia will be, I think for us, the very first country in the world to launch and have access to an MRNA RSV vaccine,” he said.

The vaccine has been hailed by Melbourne scientists as the start of a ‘true breakthrough’ Picture: iStock

He also told the Herald Sun Moderna would speak to Australian regulators to see if eligible Melanoma patients could recieve a therapeutic MRNA cancer vaccine in the “next year or so”.

The Moderna and Merck vaccine is a personalised treatment for late-stage melanoma patients – based on genetic testing of the patient’s tumour – given to them every three weeks over nine months.

Dr Burton said Moderna was “moving as quickly as we can with the cancer program” and hopes to develop treatment for other tumours such as lung and colon cancer.

“I’m actually here in Australia to try and talk to the Therapeutic Good Association, talk to the government about can we move those data that we presented just recently forward, and actually have them serve as the basis of approval to bring that to cancer patients here in Australia in the next year or so,” he said.

Dr Burton shared data from the trial, which involved Australian patients, to a lecture hosted by the Doherty Institute and Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Alliance in Melbourne on Wednesday.

It’s hoped the MRNA cancer vaccine could be given to Aussie cancer patients in the ‘next year or so’. Picture: iStock

107 patients melanoma patients, who had recently had their tumour removed, recieved the vaccine and immunotherapy. The data — first presented in the US last month — shows their risk of death or recurrence over 18 months was reduced by 44 per cent compared to those who only recieved immunotherapy.

The results have been submitted for peer-review but are yet to be published.

VCCC Alliance executive director Prof Grant McArthur said he believes the use of MRNA technology to treat cancer will be one of a “small number of true breakthroughs” he has witnessed in his career.

“I think we will see results pretty soon, within two to three years,” he said.

“This is potentially revolutionary in cancer treatment.

“(MRNA vaccine development) is the fastest pace that medical science has moved at in the history of humanity to bring huge benefits to patients.”

Doherty Institute director Professor Sharon Lewin said the use of MRNA as a cancer treatment was “just groundbreaking on so many fronts”.

“The field is littered with many failed therapeutic vaccines, most of us have thought they are never going to work on any of the chronic viral infections or cancer,” she said.

Moderna announced a ten-year deal with the state and federal government last year to manufacture MRNA vaccines in Victoria.

Dr Burton said the RSV MRNA vaccines could be produced by the local hub when it opens in mid-2025, but the cancer vaccine will first need to be developed at their US plant.

“I think over time, though, we will be able to get to a point where those types of therapies would actually be made in the country for Australia, but that’s probably a little bit further out,” he said.

Dr Burton told the Herald Sun even more vaccines for other types of cancer, respiratory illnesses and auto-immune disorders would be available for clinical use by 2030.

He said other potential MRNA candidates include a “combined single shot vaccine” to protect against Covid, flu and RSV and another treatment, designed to be inhaled, for cystic fibrosis.

When asked if Australians could be confident Moderna would not leave in a decade – after having benefited from government investment – Dr Burton said the country was a “hugely critical, valuable” collaborator for the company.

“This is a partnership that we see enduring for decades to come,” he said.

A TGA spokeswoman said they had recent met with Moderna to “discuss potential applications for registration” of their Melanoma vaccine.

“The TGA encourages and welcomes discussions with all sponsors on new and emerging therapeutic goods,” she said.

“For a medicine to be registered on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods, the sponsor (in this case, Moderna) needs to submit an application, with appropriate evidence, to the TGA.”