Pakistan develops first-ever vaccine for breast cancer prevention

LAHORE: Pakistan has successfully developed a vaccine aimed at preventing breast cancer, ARY News reported on Monday.

As per details, the Institute of Public Health Punjab has developed the vaccine to prevent breast cancer among females.

A policy dialogue has been initiated regarding the production of the Human Papillomavirus vaccine, which experts say could prove to be a milestone in the country’s healthcare sector.

Commenting on the development, Punjab Finance Minister Mujtaba Shuja said that the provincial government is paying special attention to the health sector, adding that the development of the Papilloma Vaccine by the Institute of Public Health is a remarkable achievement.

Renowned medical expert Professor Dr. Javed Akram said the vaccine would help in the prevention of breast cancer.

He explained that administering three doses of the vaccine to girls at the age of 12 would provide lifelong protection against the disease.

Earlier, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Datroway- AstraZeneca and partner Daiichi Sankyo’s precision drug- to treat a type of breast cancer, the health regulator said on Friday.

The treatment, jointly developed with the Japanese company, was branded as Datroway and approved for patients with an advanced form of breast cancer who had received prior treatment.

The list price of Datroway is $4,891.07 per vial, AstraZeneca said. It will be available to patients in the U.S. by prescription in about two weeks.

It belongs to a class of medicines called antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), also known as “guided-missiles” because they are designed to target only cancer cells while sparing healthy cells, unlike conventional chemotherapy.