BioCentury
ARTICLE | Tools & Techniques

Flexible platform: how NCI’s Sharpless thinks COVID variants could boost personalized therapies

Platform-based vaccine regulation could answer questions for cancer neoantigens and rare diseases

March 5, 2021 8:11 PM UTC

As regulators embrace platform technologies to rapidly update COVID-19 vaccines, they are laying the groundwork for personalized cancer and rare disease therapies, according to NCI Director Ned Sharpless.

FDA’s lack of regulatory frameworks for n-of-one medicines was one of Sharpless’ major take-homes from his seven-month stint as acting FDA commissioner between April and November in 2019. Sharpless has since returned to his role leading NIH’s National Cancer Institute, which he has held since 2017...