Moderna, Merck's Cancer Vaccines Exhibit Positive Outcomes Under Midstage Trial - Merck & Co (NYSE:MRK), Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna, Inc MRNA and Merck & Company, Inc's MRK cancer vaccine exhibited positive results against relapse for melanoma patients, results from a midstage trial showed.
About 79% of high-risk melanoma patients who got the personalized vaccine and Merck's immunotherapy Keytruda were alive and cancer-free at 18 months, compared with about 62% of patients who received immunotherapy alone, the Wall Street reports citing researchers.
Some 157 patients with stage three or four melanoma were enrolled in the trial and underwent surgery to remove cancer.
Around 107 patients received the shot and immunotherapy after surgery, while 50 received immunotherapy after surgery alone.
After about two years, recurrence of cancer or death was reported in 22% of patients who got the shot and the immunotherapy Keytruda and in 40% of patients who received immunotherapy alone.
The combination with the vaccine helped reduce the risk of recurrence and death for the melanoma patients in the trial by some 44% compared with Keytruda alone, the researchers said.
Moderna and Merck look to expand their research into other tumor types, including non-small cell lung cancer.
The companies aim to run a more extensive study to confirm the vaccine's safety and efficacy in treating high-risk melanoma.
They released a limited overview of the results in December and presented fuller results at an American Association for Cancer Research conference in Orlando, Florida.
"That approach could be a game-changer," said Dr. Robert Vonderheide, director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania and a chair of the AACR conference.
The researchers found that the vaccine appeared to help regardless of the number of mutations in a patient's cancer cells, which can influence a patient's response to immunotherapy drugs. "It's early days, but it provides a high degree of confidence," said Dr. Stephen Hoge, Moderna's president.
The companies said fatigue was the most common side effect, along with pain at the injection site and chills.
Price Action: MRNA shares traded higher by 1.15% at $158.90 premarket on the last check Monday.

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