Merck and Moderna's Combo Therapy Shows Promise in Melanoma Treatment
Pharmaceutical giants Merck and Moderna announced positive results from their Phase 3 INTerpath-001 study of intismeran autogene, an individualized neoantigen therapy in combination with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) for patients with completely resected Stage IIB-IV melanoma. This is the first and only combination regimen to demonstrate a clinically meaningful improvement over pembrolizumab alone, a current standard-of-care for these patients.
The study randomized 1,137 patients to receive either intismeran autogene plus pembrolizumab or pembrolizumab alone. The primary endpoints of Recurrence Free Survival (RFS) and key secondary endpoint Distant Metastasis-Free Survival (DMFS) were met in the combination therapy group.
Stéphane Bancel, Founding CEO at Moderna, expressed gratitude to patients and families who participated in the study, as well as colleagues at Merck. He highlighted the significance of this milestone, stating that mRNA technology has enabled many innovations beyond COVID-19 vaccines.