Moderna stock soars 177%, Merck jumps 12% after cancer vaccine shows promise in late-stage trial
The personalized vaccine cut the risk of melanoma returning or spreading in Phase 3 trials, and the companies plan to seek regulatory review.
- On Wednesday, Merck and Moderna announced that a personalized mRNA-based cancer vaccine succeeded in a Phase 3 trial, significantly reducing recurrence risk in high-risk melanoma patients when paired with Merck's Keytruda immunotherapy.
- Previous Phase 2b trial results established the efficacy baseline, showing the treatment reduced melanoma recurrence by 49% and metastasis to distant organs by 59% in patients after surgical tumor removal.
- H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute oncologist Dr. Ahmad Tarhini called the approach "individualized neoantigen therapy," explaining that genetic sequencing creates a "unique mutational fingerprint" to help the immune system attack cancer.
- Moderna president Stephen Hoge said the vaccine could be available by next year if regulators approve the treatment, though the FDA must first review full data the companies plan to present soon.
- Expanding beyond melanoma, where the American Cancer Society expects 112,000 new cases in 2026, mRNA technology is currently in trials for bladder, kidney, lung, stomach, and pancreatic cancers.
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178 Articles
CNA Explains: What we know about the Moderna, Merck breakthrough cancer vaccine
The personalised vaccine has succeeded in a final-stage melanoma trial. Here’s how it works, when it could become available and why researchers hope the approach can be used against other cancers.
A new combination therapy with an mRNA vaccine can delay the flare-up of the tumor or metastases. That's good. But talking about an important day for humanity is humbug – and harmful.
Experimental vaccine could prevent melanoma cancer from returning
TYLER, Texas (KETK)-- Pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck have revealed an experimental vaccine that shows signs of preventing melanoma from returning in patients. The personalized vaccine uses genetic material from a patient's own cancer to train the immune system to target the disease better. During clinical trials, 62% of participants were cancer-free at the 18-month [...]
mRNA Cancer Vaccine Delivers Breakthrough Results!
The most important change in melanoma care now on the horizon is not a new drug but a new way of making one: a bespoke mRNA vaccine built from an individual patient’s tumor and paired with checkpoint blockade that materially cuts the chance the cancer returns or spreads. The Short Version Personalized mRNA vaccine plus...
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