Moderna and Merck are preparing to launch a new trial of a cancer vaccine after a study showed it can be used to treat an aggressive form of skin cancer, according to the newspaper.financial time“.
Data released Tuesday by Moderna showed that a combination of the company’s investigational cancer vaccine and Merck’s immunotherapy drug Keytruda reduced the risk of death or skin cancer recurrence by 44 percent in high-risk patients.
The randomized phase II study included 157 patients who had previously undergone surgery for skin cancer and were followed up for one year.
Some participants received nine doses of the cancer vaccine, codenamed mRNA-4157/V940, along with Merck’s treatment, while others received only Keytruda, the standard treatment for high-risk melanoma.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said the findings encouraged Merck and Moderna to embark on a larger phase 3 study before it is approved as a new treatment.
The two companies will also test the vaccines on other types of cancer: “We think this should work against many types of cancers, not just skin cancer,” says Bancel.
Moderna shares rose 25% to $207.37 in early trading after the results were released, while Merck shares rose nearly 1%.
Scientists have long studied the possibility of using mRNA technology, which has been used in some coronavirus vaccines, to deliver a vaccine that teaches the body’s immune system how to target malignant tumors.
The findings provide the first randomized evidence that a personalized approach with a new antigen vaccine may be beneficial in skin cancer cases, said Jeffrey Weber, principal investigator of the study and deputy director of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone.
Conversely, some analysts have urged caution, noting that Moderna has released a small amount of trial data and the results have not yet been reviewed by independent scientists.
“The results from the second phase were impressive, but a detailed reading of the results will be needed to build confidence that the success can be replicated in a larger trial,” said Diana Gribuch, an analyst at SVB Securities.
In the same context, director of the George Washington University Cancer Center, Julie Bowman, explained that the new vaccines are specifically designed to target the tumor in each individual, explaining: “The tumor tissue is obtained and sequenced, and then over a period by six weeks a vaccine is produced which corresponds to the first 10-20 booms.
Bowman added that the vaccine stimulates a person’s immune system to selectively target these cancer cells.
The clinical trial is part of a six-year collaboration between Merck and Moderna in the development of specific cancer vaccines.
And in October, Merck agreed to pay Moderna $250 million to implement the option to jointly develop and commercialize the mRNA-4157/V940 vaccine.
The head of Merck’s research laboratories, Dean Lee, said the positive results of the trial represent a milestone in the company’s collaboration with Moderna.
“We look forward to pushing this program into a new phase of development,” he continued.
