Moderna and Merck are preparing to launch the first ever phase three trial of a messenger RNA cancer vaccine, after a smaller study showed it boosted patients’ chances of surviving an aggressive type of skin cancer.
Data published 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 melanoma in high-risk patients by 44 per cent compared with treatment using only Keytruda.
The phase 2 randomised trial enrolled 157 patients who had already undergone surgery related to melanoma and tracked them for a year. Some participants received nine doses of the cancer vaccine, codenamed mRNA-4157/V940, along with Keytruda. Others were given Keytruda alone, which is the standard treatment for high-risk melanoma.