The UK appears to have benefited from Brexit after reaching a deal with German Covid vaccine maker BioNTech to develop a new range of cancer vaccines for crucial trials. BioNTech, the company that partnered with US pharmaceutical maker Pfizer to develop a vaccine against COVID-19, will enroll up to 10,000 patients in clinical trials of cutting-edge cancer treatments after winning a landmark deal with the UK.
It is hoped that the breakthrough vaccines will help prevent cancers from returning or spreading if caught in their early stages.
Customized cancer vaccines are used to harness patients’ immune systems to attack their tumors directly, each tailored to an individual tumor’s genetic code.
BioNTech co-founder and chief executive officer Uğur Şahin said the investment to deliver on a pledge to enroll 10,000 patients in trials by 2030 was “huge,” though he noted he couldn’t give exact numbers.
While a multitude of countries are expected to flock to treatments in the future, the UK appears to be leading the party.
BioNTech’s other co-founder, Professor Ozlem Tureci, told BBC News: ‘We have seen in the COVID-19 pandemic, with the rapid approval of vaccines in the UK, that the regulator is exceptional. the possibilities for genome analysis. Great Britain is one of the leading nations in this sense”.
According to financial columnist Matthew Lynn, all of this is due to Brexit. As he notes in an article for The Spectator, Brexit has benefited the UK in this way, as it “allows the UK to create a more flexible and simpler regulatory structure that is better tailored to our needs and the prohibition to avoid doubts the bureaucracy that dominates the rest of Europe.”
He adds that a second benefit is that ‘Britain can use this to become a laboratory for advanced science and technology. Life sciences are the most obvious example, partly because the UK was already strong in this area.”
British patients could take part in the study as early as September, according to health secretary Steve Barkley.
Barkley said: ‘This deal builds on this government’s promise to increase spending on research and development by up to £20 billion a year.’
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He added that the move ‘demonstrates that the UK remains one of the most attractive places in the world for innovative companies investing in research’.
Professor Türeci and Mr Şahin have previously said they chose the UK in part because they were impressed by the speed and flexibility of the medicines and healthcare products regulator, the first in the Western body to release a vaccine against Covid in Dec 2020 approved.
Together with Genomics England, a state-owned company, NHS England will create a cancer vaccine stepping stone to help identify suitable patients.
added Prof. Türeci; “The NHS infrastructure in the UK is outstanding and is committed to enabling patients to search for clinical trials and vice versa – to ensure clinical trials find the right patients.”
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While BioNTech has been conducting clinical trials of its customized cancer vaccines since 2012, it plans to expand the scope of its trials to meet its goal of having the product ready for approval by 2030.
The treatments are being introduced in studies of early stage patients to prevent the cancer from coming back. It has also been used in advanced stage patients who do not respond well to other therapies. Last year, the company announced the first positive results in a study combining the vaccines with another cancer treatment called CAR-T.
In the summer, former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith told Express.co.uk that Brexit would give Britain the opportunity to “become a global hub for medical technology”.
He said: “First of all, we have some of the largest scientific universities in the world. And we have one of the largest datasets in the world, which is the NHS. Using anonymous data with the best scientists and individuals in the world makes this a very attractive option to invest and do your medical studies, genetic studies… all these things here.
“What the market needs is a proper set of defining rules. It’s not just about deregulation, it’s also about setting the terms of regulation.”
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