00:00But let's put our focus to some good news of the day.
00:03A vaccine for cancer.
00:05That's the headline you've been seeing everywhere this week.
00:08But it's only half right.
00:11So let's get down to the other half.
00:13Now, Mark and Moderna, yes, the COVID vaccine Moderna,
00:16have run a big trial on melanoma.
00:18That's the most dangerous kind of skin cancer.
00:22A thousand one hundred and thirty-seven patients.
00:25All of them had already had surgery to remove their tumour.
00:29And the problem with melanoma is that cutting it out isn't always the end.
00:34It's high-risk patients.
00:35It can come back usually in the first one or two, three years as well.
00:38So they ran a test and they did a trial on over, you know, thirteen hundred people.
00:45And here's what they tested.
00:47Every patient got Keytruda, an immunotherapy drug that already is standard treatment now.
00:52Some of them also got the new shot.
00:54And it's called Intense Merrin.
00:57And this is the bit that's actually new.
01:00Each dose is made for one person only.
01:03Doctors take your tumour, read its genetic mutation,
01:07and Moderna builds an mRNA shot from that code.
01:11It's the same technology as the COVID jab, but personalised.
01:16Every patient gets a personalised shot.
01:19The shot trains your immune system to recognise your specific cancer,
01:23so it can hunt down anything left behind.
01:26So, the question is, did it work?
01:29Yes, two years in, about 82% of patients on the combination had no cancer recurrence.
01:35Listen to that again.
01:37In two years, about 82% of patients on this combination had no cancer recurrence.
01:43On Keytruda alone, it was 70%.
01:46But simply, one of every 100 patients, roughly 12 more stayed cancer-free.
01:52The companies are calling it a 42% cut in the risk of cancer coming back, or even death.
01:58Now, that is real.
01:59It's the first time a personalised cancer vaccine has passed a phase 3 trial.
02:04Now, for the part that headlines are skipping, and you should know.
02:07One, we don't yet know if it helps people live longer.
02:11The survival data isn't mature.
02:13And right now, the difference is in statistical significance.
02:17Maybe it will be, but we don't know that just yet.
02:20And number two, it's not a vaccine like a polio drop.
02:23It doesn't prevent cancer in healthy people.
02:25It's a treatment given after surgery to people who already have the cancer.
02:30And number three, it isn't approved anywhere.
02:33Not even in the United States, not in Europe, and certainly here, not in India.
02:37And number four thing to remember, the time.
02:40Because each shot is custom made, the median wait for the first dose is about two months after surgery.
02:46But I'm sure the question on everybody's mind is that of side effects.
02:50About half the patients had fever.
02:52About half had pain at the injection site.
02:55Plenty had fatigue.
02:57Serious side effects were slightly higher than just say Keytruda alone.
03:01And about 24% versus 20.
03:04And honestly, the makers have reacted coldly.
03:07The market, in fact, has reacted coldly at the moment.
03:11Moderna share fell sharply after the full data came out
03:13because the numbers were a little weaker than the earlier trial suggested.
03:17So, what's the bottom line here?
03:19The idea works. Using your own tumour score to fight your own cancer is no longer science fiction.
03:24It's actually happening. It's a brilliant tech that is available for you and me.
03:28But this isn't a cure.
03:29And it isn't arriving in India's hospitals tomorrow or even this year.
03:33The trials for lungs, bladder and kidney cancer will be the real test.
03:38Something which is more dominant in the Indian society, for example.
03:41And if it works there, then we are talking about something really big.
03:45Until then, it's promising and that's what it is for now.
