Moderna's cancer vaccine hits key goal in melanoma trial with NYU Langone link

A Long Island hospital helped pharmaceutical giants Moderna and Merck test an experimental personalized cancer vaccine that helped keep melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, from returning or spreading in a late-stage clinical trial.

Moderna shares surged this week after the company and Merck announced the global trial's early success. That phase 3 trial included one patient from NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island in Mineola, Dr. Janice Mehnert, the associate director for clinical research at NYU Langone's Perlmutter Cancer Center, told Newsday on Thursday.

Moderna and Merck are developing an mRNA-based cancer vaccine that targets a patient’s unique tumor mutations. The two companies said the vaccine, paired with Merck’s immunotherapy drug Keytruda, helped patients in the trial go longer without their cancer returning than patients who received Keytruda alone, according to the joint announcement.

"What this could mean is that we could increase the probability that patients are cured from their melanoma with surgery, plus this therapy," Mehnert said.

The new trial also follows an earlier phase study, published in June, of the same vaccine-and-Keytruda combination led by researchers at Perlmutter Cancer Center.

Moderna and Merck have not disclosed how much patients in the phase 3 trial benefited, and the results have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. The companies said they plan to present the data at an upcoming international medical meeting and share them with regulators, but did not say when.

Representatives for the two companies did not immediately respond to questions about the study.

Following the news, Moderna’s stock rose from $62.96 at the close of the market on Tuesday to $174.38 by Wednesday’s market close. Shares opened Thursday at $150.11, giving back some of those gains, and hovered around $135 as of just before 3 p.m.

Merck & Co stock also rose, from $135.18 as of the close of the market on Aug. 18 to about $150 as of Thursday afternoon.  

“For many years, the idea of creating an mRNA treatment designed specifically for an individual patient's cancer was aspirational. We are now helping turn that vision into a reality,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in the joint announcement about the early phase 3 trial results.

An earlier, published phase 2b study led by NYU Langone researchers found that the combination of the vaccine and Keytruda reduced the risk of melanoma recurring or death by 49% in patients who had recently had surgery for melanoma.

The treatment also reduced the spread of cancer to other parts of the body by 59%, according to a June announcement from NYU Langone.

Physicians diagnose around 4,500 New Yorkers with melanoma each year, and around 350 New Yorkers die of the cancer annually, according to the New York State Department of Health.

The mRNA cancer vaccine works by teaching a person’s immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.

While mRNA vaccines aren’t new — they were widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic — Moderna and Merck said the new results mark the first positive phase 3 trial to show meaningful improvement over Keytruda alone. 

Mehnert said it's likely that the melanoma trial could have implications for treating other types of cancer, such as lung and bladder cancer.

"We'll know the answers to those questions very soon," Mehnert said. "But it is being tried in other spaces."

The results also provided a major boost for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna, which has struggled as demand for its COVID-19 vaccine waned. The company posted a net loss of $782 million in the second quarter, according to its second quarter financial results.

Moderna announced last year it would lay off 10% of its workforce — more than 800 employees — as vaccine sales slowed.

Newsday's Rachel Weiss contributed to this story.