00:00A personalized mRNA cancer vaccine developed by Moderna and Merck has achieved a major milestone
00:06in a late-stage clinical trial. Combined with Merck's immunotherapy drug Keytruda,
00:11the custom shot helped reduce the recurrence of melanoma and slowed its spread to other parts of
00:16the body compared to Keytruda alone. Scientists analyzed each patient's tumor sample to create a
00:22tailored shot targeting up to 34 unique mutations, training the immune system to hunt down remaining
00:29cancer cells. Wall Street reacted swiftly to the news. Moderna shares were up 100% when markets
00:35opened, the most since before the COVID pandemic, while Merck rose as much as 9.5%. The study
00:42provides the strongest evidence yet that mRNA technology can succeed beyond COVID-19 vaccines.
00:48The next test will be whether this success can translate to other types of cancers as the
00:53companies hope.
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