Claim:
In September 2025, Russia officially announced its mRNA cancer vaccine, Enteromix, was ready for clinical use and would be free to patients.
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Context:
Although all three are cancer vaccines, Russia’s mRNA vaccine (1), Enteromix (2) and a vaccine ready for clinical use (3) are different vaccines. The one announced as ready for “clinical use” is specifically for colorectal cancer. The mRNA vaccine and Enteromix are being designed for broader use against many different cancers, but they’re both still in trials as of September 2025.
In September 2025, a number of social media posts and news stories claimed that Russia had just announced a cancer vaccine was ready for clinical use and would be free to patients. The information varied between posts, but many claimed the vaccine was the mRNA vaccine called Enteromix that “demonstrated 100% efficacy and safety” in initial trials.
Posts referring to the vaccine as an mRNA vaccine called Enteromix included an Instagram post (archived) liked over 300,000 times and another Instagram post (archived) liked over 175,000 times. Some popular posts on Facebook (archived) and X (archived) were sparse in details, just claiming that a Russian cancer vaccine was ready for clinical use. A Newsweek article (archived) claimed that Russia’s Enteromix vaccine was ready for clinical use, although it did not call it an mRNA vaccine.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DOWOLUFCe72/
Russia did not announce an mRNA cancer vaccine called Enteromix was ready for clinical use in September 2025. The claims were combining information about three different cancer vaccines in development in Russia into one. A Russian official said a vaccine for colorectal cancer was ready for clinical use. Russian scientists were also working on broad-spectrum cancer vaccines at the time, one of which was an mRNA vaccine and another one called Enteromix, that used cancer-fighting viruses. But both were still in trials and not ready for widespread use.
The posts appeared to be based on a Sept. 6, 2025, story from TASS, Russia’s government-run news agency. Veronika Skvortsova, head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA), said that “Russia’s cancer vaccine” was ready for use and awaiting official approval. The TASS story gave no details on the cancer vaccine, except that the “initial target” for the vaccine would be colorectal cancer.
Its page on TAdviser, a Russian internet portal and analytical agency on corporate information, refers to the vaccine as the FMBA’s colorectal cancer vaccine. It is listed as a separate vaccine from Enteromix and from the mRNA vaccine on TAdviser’s page for cancer vaccines.
That lines up with what Skvortsova told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Nov. 25, 2024, meeting. At the time, she told Putin that Russia was creating several vaccines “using various platforms and carriers.” She named some of those vaccine types, including mRNA vaccines.
A page on Russia’s National Medical Research Radiological Centre (NMRRC) English-language website referred to Enteromix and the mRNA vaccine as two separate research efforts. Both appeared to be developed with the intent of fighting many different cancers instead of one particular kind, such as the colorectal cancer vaccine. The FMBA did not appear to be involved in either’s development, unlike with the colorectal cancer vaccine.
Enteromix, according to the NMRRC, is being designed to use four non-pathogenic viruses that it says can destroy malignant cells and activate the patient’s anti-tumor immunity. The NMRRC said the effects of the vaccine vary “from slowing tumor growth to its complete destruction.”
The “personalized” mRNA vaccines, meanwhile, are being designed to be unique vaccines based on a genetic analysis of each patient’s tumor so it can “teach” the patient’s immune system to target the tumor’s cells. NMRRC created a software to determine the genetic profile of individual mutations for the vaccine to be tailored to. Preclinical trials indicated the vaccine caused tumor growth to slow or stop entirely.
Neither is being designed to prevent new, future cancer, just fight it once a person has cancer or had it previously.
News stories from Izvestia, a Russian national newspaper, and GxP, a news source focused on the Russian pharmaceutical industry, help piece together where the Enteromix and mRNA vaccines are in terms of clinical availability.
In December 2024, Russian officials said people with a confirmed diagnosis of a “solid inoperable tumor” with no standard treatment options available would be allowed to participate in clinical trials. The trials began in June 2025 with 48 volunteers, according to TAdviser.
Volunteers for the clinical trial of the mRNA vaccine were chosen in February 2025, with trials planned to begin in September. The trial, the timeline of which was later shifted so that it would begin in September or October, was for patients with melanoma. Russian officials planned for lung cancer patients to be the second group the vaccines would be tested on. Although the vaccine is only being tested on patients with specific cancers to start, Russia plans on refining the vaccine for treatment on other kinds of cancer, too.
Both Enteromix and the mRNA vaccine showed promising results in preclinical trials, according to Russian officials, although Snopes could not find any research papers sharing those results. Preclinical trials typically involve testing on animals and in laboratories before human testing can begin.
Russian officials have said they plan to offer the Enteromix and mRNA vaccines to patients for free.
Russia is not the only country working on personalized mRNA vaccines to fight cancers. The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) plans to begin clinical trials for mRNA cancer vaccines soon.
Vaccines for individual cancers, such as the FMBA’s vaccine for colorectal cancer, already exist. A few are available in the United States.
Sources:
“Cancer Vaccine – Biotech Solutions in the Fight against Cancer Diseases.” FSBI “NMMRC” of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, new.nmicr.ru/en/pacientam/metody-diagnostiki-i-lechenija/vaccinotherapy/. Accessed 10 Sept. 2025.
“Cancer Vaccines.” TAdviser.ru, 18 Aug. 2025, tadviser.com/index.php/Article:Cancer_vaccines. Accessed 10 Sept. 2025.
“Meeting with Head of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency Veronika Skvortsova.” Kremlin.ru, 25 Nov. 2024, en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/75640. Accessed 10 Sept. 2025.
Мельникова, Татьяна. “Individual Cancer Vaccines Will Be Tested in Russia. What You Need to Know.” Известия, 4 Aug. 2025, en.iz.ru/en/1931403/2025-08-04/individual-cancer-vaccines-will-be-tested-russia-what-you-need-know. Accessed 10 Sept. 2025.
“Russian Cancer Vaccine Ready for Use — FMBA Head.” TASS, 6 Sept. 2025, tass.com/politics/2013559. Accessed 10 Sept. 2025.
“Volunteers Have Been Recruited to Test a Russian MRNA Anti-Cancer Vaccine | News | GxP News.” GxP News, 10 Feb. 2025, gxpnews.net/en/2025/02/volunteers-have-been-recruited-to-test-a-russian-mrna-anti-cancer-vaccine/. Accessed 10 Sept. 2025.
