Guggenheim Backs Merck Amid Positive Cancer Therapy Trial Results
Guggenheim reiterated its Buy rating and $146 price target on Merck & Co. () following positive results from a Phase 3 cancer therapy trial.
The company, in partnership with Moderna, announced that their INTerpath-001 trial of INT combined with Keytruda met the primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival and key secondary endpoint of distant metastasis-free survival in patients with completely resected Stage IIB-IV melanoma.
The result marks the first positive Phase 3 readout for an mRNA cancer therapy, and builds on previous results from the Phase 2 KEYNOTE-942 trial, where INT plus Keytruda demonstrated a 0.51 hazard ratio for recurrence-free survival versus Keytruda monotherapy.
Guggenheim estimates that INT could generate sales exceeding $2 billion in adjuvant melanoma alone.