Merck CEO Rob Davis expects the personalized cancer vaccine the company is developing with Moderna to become faster to manufacture over time, according to an Oct. 14 CNBC report. The current turnaround is about six weeks, from sequencing a patient’s tumor to delivering the vaccine to the hospital.
The vaccine, intismeran autogene, is made individually for each patient rather than as a one-size-fits-all treatment. It is designed to target the specific mutations in a patient’s tumor and train the immune system to recognize and kill cells that carry them, and it is paired with Merck’s Keytruda to help the body attack the cancer more effectively, according to CNBC. That individualization is what makes it complicated to produce. Davis said the focus now is making sure supply and the market are ready and then speeding the timeline. “Over time you’re going to see that timeline shortened,” he said.
Merck and Moderna reported in August that the vaccine delayed both recurrence and spread in a phase 3 trial of 1,137 people with advanced melanoma, the only personalized cancer vaccine study so far large enough to show definitive results. Davis said the vaccine is also being studied in non-small cell lung cancer, bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma.
The results build on earlier data. The vaccine cut the risk of recurrence or death by 49% when paired with Keytruda in a phase 2 melanoma trial, and cancer centers have been testing mRNA vaccines across several tumor types. The NIH, meanwhile, plans a public-private effort starting in December to speed personalized cancer vaccines, beginning with pancreatic, liver and colorectal cancers and a subset of pediatric tumors. The agency expects the first phase of small studies to take about three years, with a goal of making vaccines widely available in seven to 10 years.
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