Moderna and Merck's mRNA Cancer Vaccine Shows Promising Results in Phase 3 Trial

Moderna and Merck have jointly developed an mRNA cancer vaccine called intismeran autogene (mRNA-4157/V940), which has shown promising results in a Phase 3 clinical trial for patients with high-risk melanoma.

The study, known as INTerpath-001, enrolled 1,137 patients who had received no prior systemic therapy. The participants were randomized to receive either the personalized mRNA vaccine in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) or pembrolizumab alone.

The results showed that the combination of the mRNA vaccine and pembrolizumab demonstrated statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in both recurrence-free survival (RFS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) compared to pembrolizumab monotherapy.