Pharmaceutical companies Merck and Moderna announced on Wednesday encouraging data from trials of an experimental melanoma vaccine, which could potentially lead to its approval.
The companies stated in a release that the vaccine, named intismeran autogene, demonstrated 'statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements' in patients with skin cancer when used in combination with Merck's drug Keytruda.
Unlike traditional vaccines, so-called therapeutic vaccines like intismeran are not aimed at preventing disease but at treating it, teaching the body's own immune system to fight tumors or other pathogens.
Company representatives noted that this is the first positive Phase 3 result for individualized neoantigen therapy (INT) and for mRNA-based anti-cancer therapy. They mentioned matrix RNA technology, which previously showed high efficacy against severe forms of Covid-19.
Specific details of the study results were not disclosed, nor was it indicated when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) might consider approving the vaccine.
Both the FDA and the European Medicines Agency have placed this therapy on an accelerated review pathway.
The companies emphasized that melanoma is one of the most dangerous forms of skin cancer, as over 330,000 new cases were diagnosed worldwide in 2022.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel stated in the release: 'For many years, the idea of creating an mRNA therapy specifically designed for an individual patient's cancer was just a dream. Now we are helping to make that vision a reality.'
Before the official opening of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Moderna shares rose by approximately 65 percent.