Cancer treatment could face landmark moment with promising vaccine
A therapy using the same mRNA technology in coronavirus vaccines showed positive results in a trial for skin cancer patients, drugmakers Moderna and Merck said.
An experimental drug that uses messenger RNA to deliver a vaccine customized to a patient’s tumors effectively prevented skin cancer recurrence in a large-scale clinical trial, according to new results announced by drugmakers Wednesday.
The mRNA-based shot in combination with Merck’s immunotherapy Keytruda met key goals in the Phase 3 trial in more than 1,100 patients with higher-risk or advanced melanoma whose detectable cancer had been completely removed through surgery.
Merck shares climbed more than 12% on Wednesday, while Moderna’s stock soared about 177%. The size of those moves reflect the companies’ relative size entering Wednesday: Merck’s market cap was around $333 billion, while Moderna’s sat near $25 billion.
The combination regimen met the main study goal of significantly extending the time patients lived without their melanoma returning, compared with Keytruda alone. The treatment also reduced the risk of the cancer spreading to distant parts of the body. Those results build on positive Phase 2 trial data on the same regimen earlier this year.
“It’s a big moment for medicine, a big moment for patients,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”