Moderna and Merck said Wednesday their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine met its main goals in a Phase 3 trial targeting melanoma, marking the first time a therapy of its kind has succeeded at that stage of testing. The news sent Moderna’s stock up more than 100% and lifted Merck shares as well, as investors bet on a new era for a company long defined by its Covid-19 vaccine.
The companies’ vaccine, called intismeran autogene, is built from a sample of a patient’s own tumor. It is designed to teach the immune system to recognize the specific mutations in that person’s cancer. In the trial, patients with high-risk melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer, who had already had their tumors surgically removed received either the vaccine plus Merck’s immunotherapy Keytruda, or Keytruda alone.
