Kazakhstan’s cancer breakthrough: New drug on track for 2025

Kazakhstan aims to register its first domestically developed cancer treatment drug by the end of 2025, Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek announced at a recent government briefing.

Nurbek noted that the drug successfully passed its first-stage clinical trials in 2024. The trials have since expanded to include patients with various cancer types, moving beyond the initial focus on colorectal cancer.

«Clinical trials are currently underway across various cancer types. Patients are demonstrating positive outcomes, with an average tumor reduction of 30%. Some patients have achieved remission. We aim to finalize trials and register the drug by the end of 2025,» Nurbek said.

He also emphasized that the Ministry of Healthcare is actively facilitating the approval process, providing guidance through all necessary procedures. Nurbek mentioned that developing a new drug typically takes about 10 years, but in this case, some stages were accelerated.

«By the end of the year, we will collect all the data, summarize the results and officially present the drug at a dedicated press conference,» he added.

In November 2024, Kursiv.media reported a collaborative effort between researchers at the National Laboratory Astana and the Kazakh Institute of Oncology and Radiology in Almaty to establish the maximum tolerated dose of DVC, a new domestically developed cancer drug. For this study, cancer patients who met specific criteria were selected to receive up to 36 injections of the drug in gradually increasing doses.