Merck and Moderna expand collaboration

4 May 2018

US biotech startup Moderna Therapeutics and Merck & Co (NYSE:MRK) have expanded their 2016 collaboration to develop and commercialize novel personalized messenger RNA (mRNA) cancer vaccines to now include shared antigen mRNA cancer vaccines including mRNA-5671, Moderna’s mRNA KRAS cancer vaccine.

Moderna developed mRNA-5671 starting in 2017. The two companies will now advance jointly mRNA-5671 in human studies, and plan to conduct combination studies with additional immuno-oncology therapies.

“Augmentation of immune responses offers great promise in cancer therapy, as our work with the PD-1-specific antibody Keytruda [pembrolizumab] has shown,” said Dr Roger 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.”

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