NeoOncovac (melanoma vaccine)

History

2025: Product Announcement

At the end of December 2025, the personalized NeoOnkovak mRNA vaccine, designed to treat patients with melanoma, became available in Russia. The drug was created by the National Medical Research Center of Radiology of the Ministry of Health of Russia together with the Gamaleya Scientific Research Center and the National Medical Research Center of Oncology named after Blokhin.

• is Melanoma a malignancy that develops from melanocytes (the pigment cells that produce melanin) and is the most aggressive and dangerous type of skin cancer. The disease metastasizes rapidly, spreading to other organs, including the lymph nodes, lungs liver,,. brain

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Фото: Freepik

The NeoOnkovak vaccine is created on the basis of the individual genetic profile of the patient's tumor. Through this, the immune system recognizes and destroys only cancer cells, minimizing damage to healthy tissues. NeoOncovac-based therapy can be received by adult patients with unresectable or metastatic skin melanoma in combination with checkpoint inhibitors (ICTs), as well as people with melanoma (after removal of all metastatic lesions) after surgical treatment as adjuvant therapy in combination with ICTs. To create a vaccine, it is necessary to have tumor tissue available for biopsy/surgery.

According to TASS, the general director of the National Medical Research Center of Radiology, the chief oncologist of the Ministry of Health of Russia Andrei Kaprin, at first the mRNA vaccine will be used strictly in certain clinical situations. This is, in particular, the use after surgery, when metastatic foci are removed, but therapy continues to reduce the risk of recurrence. Caprin emphasizes that previously all personalized mRNA vaccines in the world existed only within clinical studies. Thus, NeoOnkovak will be used for the first time in medical practice.^[1]

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