Moderna-Merck Cancer Vaccine Shows Promise in Melanoma Trial

A promising mRNA-based cancer vaccine developed by Moderna and Merck has shown significant success in preventing melanoma from returning or spreading in high-risk patients.

The personalized vaccine, Intismeran, was tested in a late-stage trial involving 1,137 patients who had undergone surgical removal of their melanomas. The patients were randomized to receive either the vaccine combination with Keytruda or Keytruda alone for approximately one year.

The results indicate that the vaccine met its main goal of extending 'recurrence-free survival' (RFS), which is the length of time high-risk patients live without melanoma coming back. The study also met a secondary goal of preventing cancer from spreading to different parts of the body.

'We have started to demonstrate the potential of an entirely new class of medicine, and an entirely new way of thinking about cancer care: using the information encoded within an individual patient’s cancer to design a specific therapy that helps train their immune system to fight it,' said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel.

The companies plan to file for approval in 'the next few months' and may begin discussing regulatory steps as early as now. Approval would represent a significant win for Moderna, which has been dependent on sales of COVID-19 vaccines.