Moderna and Merck shares soar on mRNA cancer vaccine
Moderna and Merck shares soared on Wednesday after the companies said a personalized mRNA treatment hit its target of preventing skin cancer from recurring or spreading in a late-stage clinical trial.
Why it matters: The results come at a pivotal moment for Moderna and mRNA research, after Trump administration health officials cut federal funding for new vaccines and asserted the technology poses more risks than rewards.
The customized therapy, which could see a commercial launch next year, could also be adapted for other cancers of the kidney, bladder and pancreas.
The big picture: The results could lead to a remarkable turnaround for Moderna, whose market value plummeted more than 90% after demand for its COVID vaccine declined post-pandemic.
The company this month also won Food and Drug Administration approval for a new mRNA seasonal flu vaccine.
"People will experience this as ... the COVID company now [takes on] cancer," Moderna president Stephen Hoge told Axios.
"But for those of us that live in it, it's like the cancer company that pivoted on a dime to help with COVID has pivoted back and really finally come home." Driving the news: The experimental therapy, called intismeran, was tested in combination with Merck's cancer drug Keytruda in more than 1,100 patients with high-risk melanoma that had been surgically removed.
The combination demonstrated a "clinically meaningful improvement" over treating the skin cancers with Keytruda alone.
The mRNA-based drugs essentially train the immune system to find mutations in a patient that cause tumors.
That's a contrast to chemotherapy, which damages or destroys cancer cells.
"We may be entering an era where a patient's individual tumor biology can be used to design a therapy specifically for them," William Soliman, founder and CEO of the Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs, said in an email.
The latest: The full results of the trial will be released at an upcoming medical meeting.
But Wall Street has already responded enthusiastically, with shares of Moderna surging 177% Wednesday, while Merck shares closed up 12.6%.
"This is a landmark moment," TD Cowen analysts wrote in an investor note.
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