The National Institutes of Health plans to launch a public-private partnership in December to speed development of personalized cancer vaccines, according to an Oct. 9 New York Times report.
Here are six things to know:
- The partnership would bring together the NIH, the Foundation for the NIH, researchers, drug and biotech companies, advocacy groups, philanthropies and patients. It would start with pancreatic, liver and colorectal cancers and a subset of pediatric tumors, according to Stacey Adam, MD, a senior clinical officer at the foundation.
- National Cancer Institute Director Anthony Letai, MD, told The Times the vaccines are promising enough to justify a national effort. The vaccines are made for each patient and train T cells to target abnormal proteins found on that person’s tumor.
- The timeline is much slower than the COVID-19 effort it is modeled on. The first phase, made up of small studies, is expected to take about three years, and larger trials across a national network of sites will take at least four. The goal is for anyone to be able to get a cancer vaccine in seven to 10 years, compared with the eight to 15 years FDA approval typically takes, Dr. Adam told The Times.
- Only one vaccine study has been large enough to show definitive results. Merck and Moderna reported in August that their melanoma vaccine, tested in 1,137 people with advanced disease, delayed both recurrence and spread. The companies plan to release full data later this month.
- Smaller studies have also shown early signs of promise. In a Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute study of patients with kidney cancer, all nine were cancer-free after 40 months. In a New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center pancreatic cancer study of 16 patients, seven of eight who responded to the vaccine were still alive, compared with two of eight who did not. A larger 260-patient study began in 2023.
- The Times noted there is no guarantee the early promise will hold, and the initiative follows HHS’ decision in August 2025 to end mRNA research funding through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which led to the cancellation of 22 contracts. The phase 3 melanoma result builds on earlier data showing the vaccine paired with Keytruda cut the risk of recurrence or death by 49% in a phase 2 trial, and cancer centers have been testing mRNA vaccines for several tumor types.
