Moderna stock soars over 90% premarket on first Phase 3 success for mRNA cancer vaccine

Moderna stock jumped more than 90% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the company and Merck reported a successful Phase 3 trial of their personalized mRNA cancer treatment in melanoma. Shares of Merck rose about 7% before market opening. Merck and Moderna’s INTerpath-001 trial found that intismeran autogene, a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine designed to teach the immune system to recognize and target a patient’s tumor, delivered noteworthy improvements in both the time patients remained free of cancer and the time they remained free of cancer spread when combined with Merck’s KEYTRUDA. The Phase 3 trial met its main goal of improving recurrence-free survival as well as a key secondary goal of improving distant metastasis-free survival at a planned interim analysis. The results were considered statistically significant and clinically meaningful among patients with completely removed stage IIB, IIC, III or IV melanoma who had not previously received systemic therapy. The trial will continue to track patients for additional outcomes, including overall survival. The readout represents a major milestone for the technology, marking the first successful Phase 3 result for individual...