Among the positive things about the Covid-19 pandemic is that it has accelerated the use of mRNA technology for vaccine development. The highly effective Covid-19 vaccine is from the mRNA family that teaches the body to resist the attack of this deadly virus.
Dr Ugur Sahin and Dr Ozlem Tureci, the two scientists who created the Comirnaty vaccine through their company BioNTech now believe that a vaccine against it will be a reality before 2030. In an interview with the BBC, the couple said the profits generated through the sale of the Comirnaty vaccine helped them to speed up the process of finding vaccines against cancer use mRNA technology as well.
Previously Dr Tureci said BioNTech has several cancer vaccine candidates under development. These two scientists have been researching cancer vaccines for the past two decades. Through the data collected from the Covid-19 vaccine, they are now studying for the best and faster way to produce vaccines in the future. The human body's reaction to mRNA is also better understood now.
Last year alone, 48,639 cancer cases were detected in Malaysia and one of the people who died was my own mother. Since the news about the development of a cancer vaccine was announced by Prof Tureci I hope it can be accelerated for mass use. My mother could not be saved but the vaccine that will exist in the future will be able to prevent cancer from continuing to take the lives of our loved ones.