WASHINGTON: Pharmaceutical company Moderna has announced that it is confident it will develop a set of new vaccines for various conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, by the end of the decade.
The company’s chief medical officer, Paul Burton, said that the vaccines would be effective in treating “all sorts of disease areas” within five years, citing the tremendous progress made in the development of Covid-19 vaccines over the past year.
Moderna, which has already created one of the leading Covid-19 vaccines, is also developing vaccines that target different types of tumours.
Burton believes that these vaccines will be highly effective in saving the lives of many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, as well as offering personalized cancer vaccines against multiple different tumour types.
According to the Guardian, the company is also researching the development of a single injection that could cover multiple respiratory infections, including Covid-19, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The firm is also exploring the use of mRNA therapies for rare diseases for which there are currently no drugs available. mRNA therapies work by teaching cells how to make a protein that triggers the body’s immune response against disease.
Medicines for several diseases
Burton said that he was excited about the prospect of “mRNA-encoded medicines for the prevention or cure of many diseases” and that the technology had the potential to “unleash a new era of drug discovery and development.”
The development of these vaccines and therapies has been aided by the success of Covid-19 vaccines, which have allowed researchers to make 15 years’ worth of progress in just 12 to 18 months.
The Guardian reports that studies into the new vaccinations are showing tremendous promise, raising hopes that the groundbreaking treatments could save millions of lives.
The announcement comes as the world continues to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic, which has infected over 130 million people and claimed the lives of over 2.8 million worldwide.
The development of these vaccines and therapies is expected to significantly impact global healthcare, potentially saving countless lives and improving the quality of life for millions of people.
