Moderna, Merck say cancer vaccine trial marks ‘landmark moment’

Aug. 19 (UPI) — A cancer vaccine developed by Merck and Moderna treating patients with melanoma showed positive and promising late-stage testing results, the drugmakers announced on Wednesday.

The experimental, personalized cancer vaccine delivered in combination with Keytruda met significant Phase 3 trial goals, Merck and Moderna said in a press release. The trial included more than 1,137 patients whose high-risk or advanced melanoma had been surgically removed.

Merck and Moderna said the trial met its primary goals of recurrence-free survival and distant metastasis-free survival, meaning it allowed patients to live without the return of melanoma and without it spreading to other parts of their body.

“Today’s results represent a landmark moment for adjuvant melanoma treatment,” Professor Georgina Long, lead researcher for the study and medical director of the Melanoma Institute Australia, said in a statement.

“This is the first Phase 3 study to show that intismeran, a treatment designed based on the unique mutational ‘fingerprint’ of a patient’s own tumor, given in combination with pembrolizumab can reduce the risk of recurrence or death in patients with completely resected stage IIB-IV melanoma compared to KEYTRUDA alone.”

The mRNA-based vaccine will continue under Phase 3 study. Merck and Moderna plan to present the data from the trial at an upcoming international medical meeting and to regulatory authorities.

Melanoma causes the largest share of skin cancer-related deaths despite being the source of about 1% of skin cancer cases.

“These Phase 3 findings represent a pivotal moment for the field of cancer research,” Stephanie Bancel, CEO of Modera, said in a statement. “For many years, the idea of creating a mRNA treatment designed specifically for an individual patient’s cancer was aspirational. We are now helping turn that vision into a reality.”

The news of the trial’s success accompanied a bump in both Moderna and Merck stocks during early morning trading on Wednesday. Shares in Moderna rose 120% while Merck’s shares jumped more than 10%.