BIOBRIEF
Moderna and Merck's personalized mRNA cancer vaccine beat Keytruda alone on two survival endpoints. Every dose is personalized, so three sequencing names rallied. Only topline data so far.
Merck and Moderna said Wednesday that their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine beat Merck's existing cancer immunotherapy Keytruda in a large Phase III trial, in what they called the first positive readout for an individualized neoantigen therapy. INTerpath-001 tested Moderna's intismeran autogene plus Keytruda against Keytruda alone and met its primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival (how long patients stay cancer-free after treatment) and a key secondary endpoint, distant metastasis-free survival (how long before the cancer spreads to other organs).
Why the sequencing names moved: intismeran is custom-built for each patient from that patient's own tumor mutations, so every dose starts with sequencing the tumor. Illumina (Nasdaq: ILMN) jumped 16%, from $188.29 to $219.40. Pacific Biosciences (Nasdaq: PACB) climbed 18%, from $1.14 to $1.35. Oxford Nanopore Technologies (LSE: ONT) rocketed 39%, from £122.20 ($166.68) to £170 ($231.97).
Oxford Nanopore had its own quarter. First-half revenue rose 10.5% to £116.7 million ($159.2 million), new CEO Francis Van Parys reaffirmed an annual revenue target of £700 million-plus ($955 million-plus) by 2030, and the company signed an IP cross-licensing deal worth $20 million in fees plus future royalties. Part of the 39% is the cancer vaccine; part is Nanopore's own quarter. Merck and Moderna have not yet shared per-arm data, so the sequencing tailwind is conditional on the full readout.