Merck invests in Moderna
Merck is investing $125 million in Moderna under a new deal that expands
the firms’ 2016 partnership to develop messenger RNA cancer vaccines.
The deal
now includes shared antigen mRNA cancer vaccines including mRNA-5671, Moderna’s
mRNA KRAS cancer vaccine, the firms noted.
The two
companies will now jointly advance mRNA-5671 in
human studies, and combination studies
with additional immuno-oncology therapies are also in the pipeline.
Merck
will be responsible for clinical development of mRNA-5671 and associated costs
while Moderna will be responsible for clinical supply and linked costs.
On
completion of human proof-of-concept studies, Merck may opt-in on further
development and commercialization of the vaccine on payment of an undisclosed
fee to Moderna.
“Augmentation
of immune responses offers great promise in cancer therapy, as our work with
the PD-1-specific antibody Keytruda has shown,” said Dr Roger M.
Perlmutter, president, Merck Research Laboratories. “We now look
forward to expanding our exploration of mRNA cancer vaccines, working in
concert with our colleagues at Moderna.”
Keynote-407 hits target
Merck
announced separately that the pivotal Phase III KEYNOTE-407 trial investigating
Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in combination with carboplatin-paclitaxel or
nab-paclitaxel as first-line treatment for metastatic squamous non-small cell
lung cancer (sNSCLC) met a pre-specified secondary endpoint of overall response
rate (ORR) in an early cohort of participants at an interim analysis.
Based on
these data, Merck said it has recently submitted a supplemental Biologics
License Application (sBLA) to US regulators.
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