Moderna and Merck are preparing to launch a new phase of an anti-tumor vaccine trial, following a study showed that it can be used to treat an aggressive form of skin cancer, according to the newspaper “.The Financial Times“.
Data released by Moderna on Tuesday showed that a combination of the company’s experimental cancer vaccine and Merck’s immunotherapy drug Keytruda reduced the risk of death or recurrence of skin cancer in high-risk patients by 44 percent.
The phase II randomized trial included 157 patients who had already undergone surgery for skin cancer and were followed for a year.
Some participants received nine doses of the cancer vaccine, codenamed mRNA-4157/V940, along with Merck’s treatment, while others were given Keytruda alone, the standard treatment for high-risk melanoma.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said the findings encouraged Merck and Moderna to embark on a larger Phase 3 trial before it is approved as a new treatment.
The two companies will also test the vaccines in other types of cancer. “We think this should work once morest many types of tumors, not just skin cancer,” Bancel says.
Moderna shares rose 25 percent to $207.37 in early trading following the results were released, while Merck shares rose nearly 1 percent.
Scientists have long studied the possibility of using mRNA technology, which has been used in some coronavirus vaccines, to deliver a vaccine that teaches the body’s immune system how to target malignant tumors.
The findings provide the first randomized evidence that a personalized novel antigen vaccine approach can be beneficial in cases of skin cancer, said Jeffrey Weber, the study’s principal investigator and deputy director of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone.
In contrast, some analysts urged caution, noting that Moderna has released a small amount of trial data, and that the results have not yet been reviewed by independent scientists.
“The results of the second phase were impressive, but a detailed reading of the results will be needed to enhance confidence that the success can be replicated in a larger trial,” said Diana Gribuch, an analyst at SVB Securities.
In the same context, the director of the Cancer Center at George Washington University, Julie Bowman, explained that the new vaccines are specifically designed to target the tumor in each individual, explaining: “Tumor tissue is obtained and sequenced, and then over a period of six weeks a vaccine is made that matches the top 10 to 20 booms.”
Bowman added that the vaccine stimulates a person’s immune system to selectively target these cancer cells.
The clinical trial is part of a six-year collaboration between Merck and Moderna in the development of specific cancer vaccines.
And in October, Merck agreed to pay Moderna $250 million to implement the option to jointly develop and market the mRNA-4157/V940 vaccine.
Merck’s head of research laboratories, Dean Lee, said that the positive trial results represent a milestone in the company’s cooperation with Moderna.
“We look forward to propelling this program into a new phase of development,” he continued.
