Russia will sell in kidney cancer vaccine

The first cancer vaccine, developed by the American company Antigenics will be sold in Russia. The Ministry of Health and Social Development Ministry has granted a certificate of registration for the use of the drug in patients with renal cancer Onkofag, according to a company press release. It is assumed that the drug appeared on the Russian market in the second half of 2008. Producers also hope that the end of the year Onkofag registered in other European countries. At the same time, the vaccine has not been approved in the country of manufacture - U.S. because Antigenics failed to complete the last stage of testing the drug in patients with renal cancer. Oncophage drug, a single vaccine for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma - the most common form of kidney cancer. The base of the vaccine is an extract of the own tumor removed during surgery. Production of the drug is available in the company's factory in Massachusetts. The structure consists of individual vaccine antigens, which can be anti-tumor immune response induced in an individual patient. In other words, the introduction of the vaccine starts the immune system of the patient to the tumor cells bearing antigens to attack. The advantage of the method is the individual setting, a point impact on the cancer cells and the least side effects, say producers. In Russia, the third phase of clinical trials in the summer of 2007. The study involved a total of 604 patients, including 172 residents of the Russian Federation. In patients with minimal likelihood of recurrence of kidney cancer injection remission extended an average of 1.7 years. The life expectancy of patients in this group increased by 45%. In contrast to the Russian regulatory authorities, as the U.S. Department of Food and Drug Administration this data to be insufficient. The fact that. The FDA criteria allow any conclusions regarding the efficacy of a new drug on the basis of that achieved in an isolated subset of study participants