Moderna Sees Cancer Breakthrough as COVID-19 Vaccine Sales Normalize
Moderna's stock has staged a remarkable comeback this year after becoming one of the biggest pandemic winners, but it struggled with sharply lower COVID-19 vaccine demand and mounting losses. However, progress across its vaccine portfolio, a broadening pipeline, and efforts to streamline costs have strengthened the long-term outlook.
The company received a major validation for its ambitions beyond COVID-19 with its personalized mRNA cancer therapy, developed with Merck. The positive phase III readout for intismeran autogene (V940/mRNA-4157) in patients with high-risk melanoma whose tumors had been removed through surgery marked the first positive phase III readout for an individualized neoantigen therapy and an mRNA-based cancer therapy.
The study met its primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival, and a key secondary endpoint of distant metastasis-free survival. Although no numerical data were provided to support the results, they stated that the improvements were both statistically significant and clinically meaningful.