Moderna reveals full Phase 3 data for its customized mRNA melanoma vaccine

Moderna, the biotech company known for its COVID-19 vaccine, is pushing into cancer treatment with a customized mRNA vaccine for melanoma. According to MarketWatch, researchers are presenting full Phase 3 data for the experimental therapeutic vaccine at a medical conference in Madrid after studies met primary and secondary endpoints alongside Merck, the pharmaceutical giant.

Janice Mehnert, a doctor at NYU Langone Health's Perlmutter Cancer Center, called the treatment a first-in-class approach. The vaccine, called intismeran, uses genetic data from a patient's removed tumor to create an individualized mRNA strand targeting mutated proteins. The six-week process pairs with Merck's Keytruda, an immunotherapy drug on track to bring in about $32 billion in sales this year.

Moderna's stock has soared 284% since the companies announced trial success in August, though investors and doctors await details on how long patients stay cancer-free. Daniel Olson, an oncologist at the UChicago Medicine hospital system, said the data will show if the treatment moves forward into clinics.

Analysts at Leerink Partners and William Blair are watching the hazard ratio for recurrence-free survival to gauge how much better the combination performs than Keytruda alone. A prior Phase 2b study showed a hazard ratio of 0.51 after about five years. The results could reshape how doctors treat skin cancer.

Photo: Fletcher, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons