A personalized Moderna Inc. cancer vaccine combined with collaborator Merck & Co.’s biggest-selling drug reduced melanoma deaths in a mid-stage trial, helping for now to ease concerns about the biotechnology company’s second act following the success of its Covid-19 vaccine.

The combination of the vaccine with Merck’s Keytruda cut the risk of death or recurrence of the lethal skin cancer by 44%, the companies said Tuesday in a statement. The drugmakers plan to move the combined treatment into final-stage studies next year. Moderna shares rose as much as 26% as of 1 p.m. in New York, while Merck’s gained as much as 2.1%. 

Eoin Treacy's view

During the pandemic, the Nasdaq Biotech Index was dominated by vaccine providers. COVID-19 was all anyone was interested in. For a couple of years, everyone was willing to suspend concern that there are causes other than coronaviruses. We are now returning to more normal considerations in that the biggest causes of death are heart disease and cancer and obesity is a massive chronic issue.
Moderna’s breakout this week completes a well-defined almost yearlong base formation.
Biomarin is also attempting to break out of a seven-year base formation. The company focuses on
Gilead Sciences is now overbought in the short term. Some consolidation is likely but this has been an impressive breakout from a six-year base formation.