Moderna Shares Soar as mRNA Cancer Treatment Shows Promising Results

Moderna's shares saw a significant surge after it announced that its experimental mRNA cancer treatment had passed a key test.

The treatment, developed in partnership with Merck, uses an mRNA-based cancer vaccine called intismeran. It is designed to be tailored to individual patients based on unique mutations within their tumors.

In current studies, Moderna and Merck are pairing the vaccine with Keytruda, a immunotherapy drug made by Merck. The study compared using intismeran and Keytruda together on melanoma patients against using Keytruda alone.

The results showed that patients who received the combination lived longer without cancer returning or metastasizing than those who got Keytruda alone. However, the companies did not provide information on how long patients survived without cancer returning or whether they lived longer overall.