Neoanti­gens beck­on Mer­ck in­to a $200M can­cer col­lab­o­ra­tion with Mod­er­na

Now that Gale­na has added fresh ev­i­dence that first-gen can­cer vac­cines make for a poor R&D pro­gram, Mer­ck is bet­ting $200 mil­lion up­front that the next-gen neoanti­gen ap­proach to per­son­al­ized can­cer vac­cines can suc­ceed where all else has failed.

Mer­ck is ty­ing up with the mR­NA spe­cial­ists at Cam­bridge, MA-based Mod­er­na, which has inked a long line­up of mar­quee part­ner­ships. The big idea here is that each per­son’s can­cer cells present unique “neoanti­gens” that can be used to tai­lor a can­cer vac­cine for each pa­tient.

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