Melanoma vaccine could be available by 2025: Moderna

WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (AFP): Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told AFP his company's experimental vaccine against melanoma could be available in as little as two years, in what would amount to a landmark step against the most serious form of skin cancer.
Globally there were an estimated 325,000 new melanoma cases and 57,000 deaths from the disease in 2020.
"We think that in some countries the product could be launched under accelerated approval by 2025," he said in an interview.
Unlike conventional vaccines, so-called therapeutic vaccines treat rather than prevent a disease. But they also work by training the body's own immune system against the invader.
Therapeutic vaccines today represent a real hope in oncology, an "immunotherapy 2.0," according to Bancel.