Moderna surges on positive skin-cancer-vaccine trial data

Moderna  (MRNA) - Get Free Report shares surged Thursday after the biotech and Merck  (MRK) - Get Free Report reported encouraging results from an experimental skin cancer vaccine. 

Shares of the Cambridge, Mass., company at last check were up more than 10% near $87. Shares of Merck, Kenilworth, N.J., were little changed near $107.

The companies said that the experimental vaccine, when used in combination with Merck’s blockbuster therapy Keytruda, reduced the risk of death or recurrence of melanoma by 49% in patients in later stages of the disease compared with those who received Keytruda alone after three years.

The cancer vaccine in combination with Keytruda also reduced the risk of melanoma spreading to other parts of the body by 62%.

The results reinforce midstage trial data the companies released earlier this year. That report showed the efficacy of the combination in the same 157 patients over a shorter period.

Earlier trial data found that after roughly two years the vaccine and Keytruda cut the risk of death or relapse by 44% in melanoma patients and reduced the risk of the cancer spreading in the body by 65%.

The companies have started Phase 3 trials of the vaccine in combination with Keytruda.

The most common side effects of the vaccine after three years were fatigue, injection-site pain and chills.

Moderna: 'Robust clinical benefit'

Kyle Holen, a physician who is Moderna's senior vice president and head of development, therapeutics and oncology, said in a statement that “we are excited to see such a robust clinical benefit.”

“We look forward to sharing these data with people impacted by this disease and the broader scientific community,” he said.

Moderna and Merck are also testing the vaccine with Keytruda against other tumor types. Earlier this week the companies started a late-stage trial of the combination as a treatment for non-small-cell lung cancer.

The vaccine uses the same mRNA technology as Moderna’s covid vaccine.

Cancer of the skin is by far the most common of all cancers in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society. Melanoma accounts for only about 1% of skin cancers but causes a large majority of skin-cancer deaths.

Melanoma death rates declined rapidly from 2011 to 2020, largely because of advances in treatment, the organization said. Rates fell by about 5% per year in adults younger than age 50 and by about 3% per year in those 50 and older.

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