STAT+: Inside Moderna and Merck’s cancer vaccine triumph
Moderna and Merck's wild gambit on a cancer vaccine appears to have worked, despite big doubts, logistical challenges, and pandemic-era complications.
In March 2023, Moderna's CEO Stéphane Bancel hosted an off-site leadership meeting to discuss the results of the biotech company's cancer vaccine. He asked the 100 executives present if they had expected the experimental treatment to succeed. When no volunteers raised their hands, Bancel and Moderna's president Stephen Hoge sat down in disbelief, stating, "None of us believed it."
It wasn't until last Wednesday that Moderna and Merck announced that a 1,137-volunteer study had shown the vaccine reduced the odds that melanoma, surgically removed, would return or spread. Prior to this revelation, investors had been betting against Moderna's stock. Despite this, some experts argue that researchers should wait for more comprehensive data, while those who have long been skeptical of Moderna's mRNA technology maintain their doubts.
While top-line results from large pharmaceutical companies are rarely overturned when the full data emerges, skepticism has been a constant companion to Moderna's cancer treatment, called intismeran autogene.
Written by urgent.news from STAT News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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