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Moderna announced it's seen progress in the development of a vaccine to treat a deadly form of skin cancer in a news release shared Tuesday (December 13) morning.
The Cambridge based company announced that its possible melanoma vaccine combined with pharmaceutical giant Merck's immunotherapy Keytruda resulted in significant improvement in survival for patients who had the cancer surgically removed.
The company reports that the combination "reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 44%" in comparison to Keytruda being used alone.
"Today's results are highly encouraging for the field of cancer treatment. mRNA has been transformative for COVID-19, and now, for the first time ever, we have demonstrated the potential for mRNA to have an impact on outcomes in a randomized clinical trial in melanoma," said Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's Chief Executive Officer. "We will begin additional studies in melanoma and other forms of cancer with the goal of bringing truly individualized cancer treatments to patients. We look forward to publishing the full data set and sharing the results at an upcoming oncology medical conference, as well as with health authorities."
"These positive findings represent an important milestone in our collaboration with Moderna," said Dr. Dean Y. Li, president, Merck Research Laboratories. "Over the last six years, our teams have worked closely together combining our respective expertise in mRNA and immuno-oncology with a focus on improving outcomes for patients with cancer. We look forward to advancing this program into the next phase of development."
The two pharmaceutical companies plan to discuss their recent results with regulatory authorities before beginning their Phase 3 study on melanoma patients next year.