Express mRNA Cancer Vaccine in combination with Keytruda! Moderna has teamed up with Merck to target melanoma

MSD and Moderna today jointly announced that Merck has selected to jointly develop and commercialize the individualized cancer vaccine (PCV) mRNA-4157/V940
with Moderna under an existing collaboration and licensing agreement between the two companies.
The vaccine is currently being used in combination with Merck's PD-1 antibody Keytruda (pembrolizumab) as an adjunctive therapy in phase 2 clinical trials to treat high-risk melanoma patients
.
Under the agreement, Merck will pay Moderna up to $250 million
.

Cancer vaccines have come a long way over the years, and in general, preventive cancer vaccines are mainly aimed at cancers
caused by viral infections.
For example, by preventing HPV or hepatitis B virus infection, these cancer vaccines can prevent cancers
caused by both types of viruses.
In addition, most of the cancer vaccines now refer to therapeutic vaccines, that is, to help tumor patients stimulate the immune system to obtain stronger anti-cancer ability
.
These vaccines target specific surface proteins expressed by tumor cells to help the immune system recognize these proteins, known as tumor antigens
.

The purpose of personalized cancer vaccines is to help patients produce corresponding anti-tumor responses through vaccines designed according to the individualized tumor mutation category of patients, thereby improving the immunity of
cancer patients.
The investigational mRNA-4157/V940 cancer vaccine developed by Moderna can stimulate the generation of T cell anti-tumor response
based on the patient's tumor mutation.
Currently, the cancer vaccine is being evaluated in a Phase 2 trial of KEYNOTE-942 in combination with Keytruda for the treatment of high-risk melanoma patients
.
In addition to mRNA-4157/V940, Moderna also has targeted KRAS vaccines (mRNA-5671), IL-12 immunotherapy (mRNA-2905) and immune checkpoint vaccines (mRNA-4359) in its cancer development pipeline
.

KEYNOTE-942 IS A RANDOMIZED, OPEN-LABEL PHASE 2 TRIAL WITH A TOTAL OF 157 HIGH-RISK MELANOMA PATIENTS
ENROLLED.
After complete tumor resection, patients were randomly assigned to receive mRNA-4157/V940 (9 doses every 3 weeks) in combination with Keytruda (200 mg every 3 weeks), or Keytruda
alone.
The trial lasts for 1 year or until the patient develops a recurrent or unacceptable toxicity
.
The primary endpoint of this trial was relapse-free survival, and the secondary endpoints included survival without distant metastases and overall survival
.
Enrollment for this Phase 2 trial has been completed and preliminary data
is expected in Q4 2022.
Keytruda was selected as a combination drug for cancer vaccines because Keytruda is considered the standard of
care for patients at high risk of melanoma.

"Our collaboration with Merck on personalized cancer vaccines began in 2016 and we have a significant track record of using mRNA-4157 as a personalized cancer therapy in combination with Keytruda," said Dr.
Stephen Hoge, President of Moderna.

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