Moderna Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel thinks investors are wrong about the company’s cancer vaccine.
Moderna’s stock fell sharply over the past few days after data emerged about its cancer vaccine that investors found disappointing , though researchers called it breakthrough. “That might be a very different trade-off for a healthcare system to say we could actually save cost to your point by moving into pharmacy. Moderna has an experimental vaccine that could do just that. It targets Lynch syndrome, an inherited condition that raises the risk of colon, ovarian and other cancers and is carried by about a million people in the U.S.
Bancel said the vaccine, known as intismeran, delivered a similar-size benefit in melanoma that started Keytruda, Merck’s immunotherapy, on its road to becoming a blockbuster drug. If efforts to develop the vaccine for earlier-stage cancers prove out, Bancel said he envisions that patients with, say, early-stage lung cancer could walk into a pharmacy every three weeks for their nine doses of the cancer vaccine. “Here the side effect is that of a vaccine: You might be tired tomorrow or spike a fever tonight, and that’s your side effect,” he said.
A small, early-stage trial at Oxford University is examining whether the vaccine is safe, and researchers will eventually check whether it prevents polyps—early precursors of colon cancer. Bancel envisions government screening campaigns to help find people with the condition and an annual pharmacy shot for those with the syndrome.
