Moderna is celebrating a huge success with a vaccine against the coronavirus. Now a successful clinical study to combat skin cancer is giving the biotech company a gigantic price jump. Several other companies also benefit from this.
Successful study data on a new type of skin cancer vaccine has caused the shares of the US biotech company Moderna to rise massively. A pivotal clinical study with the mRNA vaccine Intismeran in combination with the cancer immunotherapy Keytruda from partner Merck & Co has achieved its goals, the companies announced. Moderna shares shot up more than 150 percent on Wall Street and reached their highest level since June 2024. Merck & Co shares climbed 9.2 percent to a record high.
In the wake of Moderna, investors also turned to other biotech companies: The Nasdaq Biotech Index rose by 4.4 percent to a record high. The US-listed shares of Mainz-based BioNTech gained 18.6 percent, Novavax gained six percent and Virax Biolabs jumped 37 percent.
Intismeran from Moderna is an mRNA vaccine tailored to each patient. To do this, the genetic changes in the tumor are analyzed in order to target the vaccine against the individual cancer characteristics. The drug Keytruda also activates the immune system so that it can better recognize and attack cancer cells. 1,137 patients took part in the study after an operation for melanoma, the so-called black skin cancer. The patients had stage IIB to IV tumors that had a high risk of recurrence or had already spread to other parts of the body.
Important success for Moderna
They received either the combination of Intismeran and Keytruda or Keytruda alone for one year. According to interim results, the combination was able to significantly reduce both the recurrence of the cancer and its spread in the body. The data will now be presented at a medical conference.
Discussions with the regulatory authorities are also planned in the coming months, Merck's head of research and development, Dean Li, told CNBC. A decision on the price of the drug has not yet been made, added Moderna boss Stephane Bancel. However, because the treatment does not use the patient's own cells, unlike some cell therapies, the manufacturing process can be scaled up and the price can be reduced.
For Moderna, the success is an important step in building a business beyond the corona vaccine. Merck, in turn, is preparing for the impending loss of patents for its blockbuster Keytruda this decade. Analysts at Barclays bank estimate that skin cancer therapy could generate sales of around $3 billion by 2035. The data significantly exceeded investors' expectations, said analyst Trung Huynh from RBC Capital Markets. However, Lale Akoner, strategist at eToro, urged caution: full data is still pending and producing personalized vaccines on a large scale could be expensive and complex.
The two companies had already published data from a mid-stage study in January, according to which the combination reduced the risk of relapse or death by 49 percent after five years. Melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, there were more than 1.5 million people living with a corresponding diagnosis in the USA in 2023.
