Hotly anticipated data from Moderna, Inc. and Merck & Co., Inc.’s mRNA-4157/V940 in melanoma appeared over the weekend at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting, paving the way forward into Phase III development and additional indications while giving it a shot at the success that has thus far generally eluded other cancer vaccines.
The companies presented the results on 16 April for the Phase IIb KEYNOTE-942 trial of mRNA-4157/V940 combined with Merck’s PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in patients with completely resected, high-risk cutaneous melanoma, showing a statistically significant improvement in recurrence-free survival (RFS) compared with patients who received Keytruda alone. The AACR presentation comes days after the vaccine received PRIME designation from the European Medicines Agency, which followed a breakthrough therapy designation from the US Food and Drug Administration in January