While a one-minute treatment jab might sound simple, it represents the culmination of decades of Medical Research Council (MRC) investment in immunology and antibody research.
The injectable is a new way of delivering pembrolizumab, known as Keytruda, an immunotherapy drug used to treat 14 different cancers, including:
- lung
- breast
- head and neck
- bowel
- cervical
Instead of an intravenous infusion, which can take up to two hours per appointment, eligible patients can now receive their treatment as an injection under the skin in as little as one minute.
From immune system insight to modern medicine
Pembrolizumab works by harnessing the body’s own immune defences to recognise and attack cancer cells.
Its development began with support by MRC and pioneering scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.
This includes work to understand how the immune system works at a mechanistic level, to the development in the 1970s of monoclonal antibodies, proteins that mimic the immune system’s ability to fight off harmful cells.
Subsequent breakthroughs enabled these antibodies to be ‘humanised’, reducing the likelihood that they would be rejected by the human immune system.
Together, these discoveries, recognised with Nobel Prizes, reshaped modern medicine and opened the door to an entire industry of targeted immunotherapies.
Translational support also proved crucial
In the mid-2000s, MRC Technology, now LifeArc, helped humanise the antibody that would go on to become pembrolizumab, lowering investment risk and helping move the discovery towards clinical development.
This investment helped bridge the gap between laboratory research and treatments ready for large-scale trials.
This unlocked private investment by Merck Sharp and Dohme to develop, approve and manufacture the drug at scale, and to drive further innovation such as the one-minute injectable.
Pembrolizumab was approved in Europe in 2015 and has since become one of the most widely used cancer immunotherapies in the world.
Around 14,000 patients begin treatment with the drug each year in England alone
The shift to a ready-to-use injection marks the latest step in improving treatment
For patients, this means far less time in hospital. And for the NHS, it frees up clinic space, treatment chairs and staff time at a moment when cancer services are under intense pressure.
‘It gives me more time to live my life’
Shirley Xerxes, one of the first NHS patients to receive the injection, said:
I was really happy to try out this new way of getting my treatment. I can’t believe how little time it took.
I was only in the chair for a matter of minutes instead of an hour or more. It’s made such a difference and gives me more time to live my life, including spending more time gardening.
Why MRC investment matters for patients
For the MRC, the one-minute jab is a visible example of how long-term public investment translates into benefits for patients and the health service.
Professor Patrick Chinnery, Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council, said:
What patients are seeing today with this one-minute jab is the direct result of decades of publicly funded research.
MRC investment in fundamental immunology and antibody science laid the foundations for pembrolizumab, turning curiosity driven discovery into a medicine now used by tens of thousands of NHS patients.
This is exactly how long-term public investment in discovery science pays off.
What takes one minute to deliver today reflects years of collaboration between researchers, funders, charities, industry and the NHS.
