[New Wave] Need to Establish an Ecosystem for Cancer Treatment Vaccine Industry

The domestic cancer mortality rate is very high at 158 per 100,000 people. Moreover, as the mortality rate continues to rise, the socioeconomic costs related to cancer diseases are also steadily increasing by about 4.9% annually. In response, the government has enacted the ‘Cancer Control Act’ and, through related systems, raised the cancer screening rate to 45%, while continuously expanding the National Health Insurance coverage rate to about 78.5%, making various efforts in this regard.

This situation explains why cancer therapeutic vaccines are gaining attention as a new cancer treatment method amid the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which has significantly increased awareness of vaccines. Although existing anticancer treatments have become capable of treating various cancer types, they still worsen patients’ quality of life due to side effects, recurrence, and metastasis. To overcome these issues, cancer preventive vaccines have been developed. A representative example is the vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 500,000 people develop cervical cancer annually, and 27,400 die from it, but vaccination has shown about 80% preventive effectiveness. However, cancer preventive vaccines are still considered limited in their applications.

On the other hand, cancer therapeutic vaccines are a type of immuno-oncology drug intended not only for cancer prevention but also for use alongside cancer treatment. Currently, however, their market share is only about 10% compared to preventive vaccines, and no products have yet met the required price and efficacy standards. ‘Provenge,’ a prostate cancer therapeutic vaccine developed by the U.S. company Dendreon, was the first cancer therapeutic vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2010, but it failed to succeed due to its high price and limited effectiveness.

Nevertheless, recent technological advances, including diversification of adjuvants and manufacturing processes, have raised expectations that cost-effective product development will become possible. Although the current status of cancer therapeutic vaccine development in Korea is at a lower stage compared to the global level, domestic companies such as Genexine and Aston Science are attracting attention for creating new value.

In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided a great opportunity by expanding the potential of gene-based DNA vaccines and messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, which had been delayed in development and approval, as major platforms. As awareness of advanced new drug technologies improves, interest is rising not only in vaccine research but also in various technologies such as in vivo antigen discovery and the fusion of existing vaccines with adjuvants. This can lead to shortened research and development (R&D) periods and improved cost-effectiveness.

Cancer therapeutic vaccines represent a field with very high unmet global demand. The global trend is that pioneers focusing on this untapped area gain strong market power. Furthermore, since these vaccines can help overcome cancer diseases, they are considered one of the alternatives to reduce national healthcare costs and ultimately improve patients’ lives. The government should also make efforts to foster the cancer therapeutic vaccine industry ecosystem through proactive approvals and R&D.

Jung Yuntaek, President of the Pharmaceutical Industry Strategy Institute

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.