Health experts hail Centre's move to exempt customs duty on cancer drugs
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Russian President Vladimir Putin had claimed in February of this year how the Russian scientists were close to creating vaccines for cancer. Back then, his statements had been met with understandable doubts, apart from speculations over whether Putin's own alleged battle with cancer had anything to do with the breakthrough. "We have come very close to the creation of so-called cancer vaccines and immunomodulatory drugs of a new generation," he had said in a televised comment, while also announcing that the vaccine could soon be available to patients.

Just a few days short of 2025 and Russia on Wednesday claims to have developed a cancer vaccine that will not just revolutionise treatment of the terminal disease the world over but has also promised that the treatment for terminally-ill patients would be available free of cost.

Although Putin has not specified the types of cancer the proposed vaccines are effective against, the news has come as a ray of faint hope for those genetically predisposed to cancer and those already battling the terminal disease.

As per the news, first reported by Russian media organisation TASS, the mRNA vaccine has been developed in collaboration with several research centres in the country. Reportedly, the vaccine is also planned to be released for the general public, as early as 2025. Elaborating on the endeavour, Director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology Alexander Gintsburg said in an interview to TASS that vaccine's preclinical trials were encouraging and had shown that it is capable of suppressing tumour development and also prevents potential metastasis. He further elaborated on the crucial role of AI in the oncology breakthrough.

vaccine

He said that AI-powered neural network computations can reduce the time needed to create personalized vaccines, potentially enabling the process to be completed in a time span as short as one hour. Conventionally, vaccines work by introducing a weakened virus into the body. However, mRNA vaccines work by delivering genetic instructions which enable the body's cells to produce a specific cancer protein (antigen), thereby training the immune system to recognise and create antibodies against the protein.

Andrey Kaprin, General Director of the Radiology Medical Research Center of the Russian Ministry of Health said in a statement that the vaccine would be distributed free of cost to the people. Notably, in what would revolutionize longevity and healthcare the world over, several countries are currently working on cancer vaccines and close to developing their own versions. The UK government along with Germany based-vaccine developer BioNTech is in the process of launching clinical trials for "personalised cancer treatments by 2030." While a lot of the details are underwraps but several other pharma giants like Moderna and Merck Co are said to be in the process of developing their own cancer vaccines. As per the data by World Health Organisation, cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly one in six deaths. In 2020, it caused nearly 10 million deaths worldwide.