demand for mRNA vaccines that play an important role in the COVID-19 pandemic is cooling down, and the biotech companies behind the development of these vaccines are shifting their focus to the next battlefield.
US mRNA vaccine maker Moderna announced on Wednesday that it will cooperate with pharmaceutical company Merck . The two companies will jointly develop and sell a personalized and precise cancer treatment vaccine. This vaccine is based on Moderna's mRNA technology and is used in conjunction with Merck's celebrity tumor therapy Keytruda (K drug), to explore the treatment of high-risk melanoma patients.
According to reports, the combination therapy is currently undergoing phase II clinical trials, and the two companies are expected to release clinical data in the fourth quarter of this year. After the announcement of
, Moderna's stock price closed up more than 8% on the same day. Currently, new crown vaccine is still Moderna's only commercial product, but due to the decline in vaccine demand, Moderna's stock price has fallen by nearly 50% this year. The company needs to show the market the potential of mRNA biotechnology to fight other diseases, and tumor immune is a promising application field. Brad Loncar, founder of Loncar Investments, a biofunding company in
, told the First Financial reporter: "The development of cancer vaccines has gone through a long period of ups and downs, and mRNA technology has brought new hope. Merck chose to cooperate with Moderna because the therapies that Moderna is developing target the early stages of tumor diseases and try to prevent tumor recurrence rather than treating metastatic diseases of advanced cancer. The vaccines tried by many companies have targeted advanced cancer , so it is difficult to succeed."
Longka also said that Moderna is likely to show Merck the preliminary data on the upcoming clinical trials, and these data may look "quite good". The mechanism of action of the
cancer vaccine is to teach the immune system to recognize antigen , and stimulate the body's immune response by introducing antigens expressed in the tumor into the patient's body, thereby enhancing the immune system's ability to kill tumors.
According to reports, Moderna's tumor vaccine is designed to trigger killer T cells targeting specific mutations in patients' tumors. Merck's Keytruda is a monoclonal antibody that is administered in the form of an injection that prevents certain cellular proteins from preventing T cells from attacking. Keytruda's sales accounted for 35% of Merck's total sales in the second quarter of this year, making it the company's most important revenue source.
First Financial reporter checked Smart Ba Global New Drug Intelligence Database Pharmsnap data found that in the field of mRNA drug treatment, in addition to Moderna and Merck in the United States, Germany's CureVac, BioNTech, France's Sanofi , Britain's GSK, and China's s microbial and Aibbi Biotech have all layouts, among which Moderna and BioNTech's mRNA drug pipelines are the richest.
In addition, among the top ten indications for mRNA drugs, the second largest number after the new crown vaccine is tumor immunotherapy , with more than 100 clinical trials.
BioNTech recently released data on early stage clinical trials of cancer treatment. Patients with pancreatic cancer who received surgical removal of primary tumors achieved positive results after receiving the cancer vaccine. Last year, BioNTech also conducted a phase II clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of pembrolizumab combined with the neoantigen vaccine BNT122 in melanoma.
BioNTech co-founder and CEO Dr. Ugur Sahin said that the company has begun to rethink the development methods for mRNA cancer vaccines since the new crown, and has overcome many "critical obstacles". Early data showed that mRNA cancer vaccines triggered an immune response hundreds of times stronger than the traditional cancer vaccines previously reported.
Traditional cancer drug development methods are to test new drugs in advanced disease, and cancer vaccines need to be used in early stages of the disease when the patient still has a functional immune system. Therefore, the evaluation of cancer vaccines in patients with early stages of the disease can help reduce the risk of R&D.
"The success of the new crown vaccine allows us to make bolder bets, and the chances of successful development of cancer vaccines will be increased exponentially." Wu Shaxin said.
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