Merck and Moderna's Melanoma Vaccine Shows Promising Results in Late-Stage Trial

Shares in Merck and Moderna surged after a joint announcement that their personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine, intismeran, showed positive results in a late-stage trial.

The Phase 3 trial, conducted with Keytruda (pembrolizumab) as the control arm, met its primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival and a key secondary endpoint of distant metastasis-free survival.

This is the first positive Phase 3 readout for an individualized neoantigen therapy and for an mRNA-based cancer therapy, according to Merck and Moderna. They also claim that this trial demonstrates a clinically meaningful improvement over Keytruda alone.

Merk's President of Research Laboratories, Dr. Dean Y. Li, said the goal of adjuvant therapy is to increase the possibility of cure for more patients by intervening earlier in the course of disease.