Clinical trials of the first Russian drugs for the treatment of cancer, created on the basis of viruses, are being carried out in Russia. This was announced today, October 29, by the Russian Minister of Health, Mikhail Murashko, at the National Health Congress.
“When developing pharmaceutical products, we must not only talk about orphan drugs, but also about an absolute challenge: oncology. The first Russian drugs based on oncolytic viruses are now in the clinical trial phase,” Murashko said.
Russian pharmaceutical manufacturers are also developing high-tech gene therapy drugs, for example for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy and hemophilia. These are national medicines and today they are in the clinical trial phase, explained the minister.
Today, more than 70% of the pharmaceutical market in Russia is represented by domestic drugs, if we count packages. The position of the medical products market is also changing: for example, already 42% of medical products are produced in Russia, Murashko clarified.
As reported EADaily at the beginning of September, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, chief oncologist of the Ministry of Health, general director of the National Center for Medical Research in Radiology Andrei Kaprin announced that preclinical studies of the first Russian cancer vaccine have been completed. Volunteers with medical indications will now be recruited for clinical trials. The essence of using an oncovaccine is to collect tumor material from the patient, analyze its characteristics and create a tumor passport, which is then used for a personalized vaccine, with the help of which the body itself will destroy the cancerous tumor.
