SITUATION ANALYSIS: White Pill Wednesday Yesterday, Moderna and Merck announced an incredible result in cancer treatment. Their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, intismeran autogene, substantially slowed recurrence of melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, in a Phase 3 clinical trial. The trial also showed a reduction in the risk of the cancer spreading to distant parts of the body. Moderna stock nearly tripled, surging 177% on the news. Merck rose 12.6%. Oncologists often say “cancer is like a snowflake” — there are hundreds of different types, and even patients with the same type of cancer have a unique set of mutations in their particular tumor. Historically, this has made cancer very difficult to treat. Now, doctors can sequence the DNA of a removed tumor and identify “neoantigens”, or mutated proteins that appear in the patient’s cancer cells but not their healthy cells. They then manufacture a custom messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine that tells the patient’s cells to produce these neoantigens. This helps the patient’s T cells, a type of immune system cell, to hunt down and destroy cancer. In combination with Merck’s cancer immunotherapy drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab), it works better than Keytruda alone. This is a big deal. The first clinical trial testing a neoantigen vaccine was initiated in 1997, and billions of dollars have been spent over decades with little success. This trial is the first Phase 3 success for any individualized neoantigen therapy. It remains to be seen whether intismeran will work for other types of cancer beyond melanoma and how easily it can be scaled. Moderna and Merck have also not published effect sizes, survival times, or full statistical results, which will likely be presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Madrid on October 23-27. But for now, it looks like another battle has been won in humanity’s millennia-long war against cancer. Written by @theojaffee. Read more at our link in bio.