US-based pharma company Moderna on December 14 announced that its investigational mRNA cancer vaccine developed in partnership with Merk’s monoclonal antibody, KEYTRUDA, has shown significant improvement in the rates of recurrence-free survival of high-risk melanoma patients.
Key points
- According to Moderna, an investigational personalized mRNA cancer vaccine (the mRNA-4157/V940), in combination with Merk’s monoclonal antibody KEYTRUDA, anti-programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) therapy, helped patients in Stage 3 or Stage 4 Melanoma, reduce the risk of recurrence or death by 44 percent.
- The company said that mRNA was transformative for COVID-19, and now, for the first time ever, they have demonstrated the potential for mRNA to have an impact on outcomes in a randomized clinical trial in melanoma.
About mRNA (Messenger RNA) vaccine
- To trigger an immune response, many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies.
- But, mRNA vaccines use mRNA created in a laboratory to teach our cells how to make a protein—or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside our bodies.
- This immune response, which produces antibodies, is what helps protect us from getting sick from that germ in the future.
- mRNA from vaccines does not enter the nucleus and does not alter DNA.
