Moderna/Merck kick off late-stage study of skin cancer vaccine
Moderna's logo is reflected in a drop on a syringe needle in this illustration taken November 9, 2020.
Pharma giant Moderna and its partner Merck said on Wednesday (July 26) that they had begun taking in patients for a late-stage study testing their personalised skin cancer vaccine in combination with immunotherapy Keytruda.
Mid-stage study data obtained from 157 patients had yielded that the vaccine combination reduced the risk of recurrence of the disease or death by 44 per cent in patients with melanoma. It is the most deadly form of skin cancer
The current trial is expected to involve more than 1000 patients from over 25 countries. First patients are being enrolled in Australia.
The companies are testing the vaccine in melanoma patients whose tumors were surgically removed before being treated with either the drug-vaccine combination or Keytruda alone.
The vaccine is tailored for each patient to generate T-cells, a key part of the body's immune response, based on the specific mutational signature of a tumor.
Merck's Keytruda therapy is so-called checkpoint inhibitor. The therapy is designed to disable a protein called programmed death or PD-1. This protein helps cancer to evade the immune system.
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The competition
In addition to Moderna and Merck, rival companies BioNTech SE and Gritstone Bio are also working on cancer vaccines based on mRNA technology.
For decades, scientists have been chasing the dream of vaccines against cancer. There have not been many successes.
According to industry experts, mRNA vaccines, which can be produced in as little as eight weeks, paired with drugs that rev up the immune system may lead to a new generation of cancer therapies.
The late-stage trial's main goal is to measure amount of time the patients live without the cancer returning when treated with the combination, compared to treatment with Keytruda alone.
The duration of the study would depend on when that occurs, the companies said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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