Moderna and Merck said their experimental vaccine in combination with the therapy Keytruda improved survival and showed durable efficacy in a midstage study in patients with a deadly form of skin cancer.
The shot is a key part of Moderna's pipeline that has helped shore up investor sentiment for the biotech company following a rocky last year, when demand plummeted for its Covid vaccine,Among new data, nearly 75% of patients who took the combination were alive without any signs or symptoms of their cancer returning at the 2½-year mark. That compares with 55.6% of patients who got Keytruda alone.
As the companies previously announced, patients with severe forms of the cancer, known as melanoma, who received the combination were 49% less likely to die or have their cancer return than those who took Keytruda alone after roughly three years. The combination also slashed the risk of melanoma spreading to other parts of the body, or death, by 62%.
Moderna is excited about working to reduce the time between the initial analysis of a tumor and when a patient gets injected with the shot, CEO Stephane Bancel said in an interview with CNBC.
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