{"id":112313,"date":"2026-08-27T15:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/112313\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T15:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:33:09","slug":"merck-and-moderna-cancer-vaccine-ionis-astrazeneca-readout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/112313\/","title":{"rendered":"Merck and Moderna cancer vaccine, Ionis, AstraZeneca: Readout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want to stay on top of the science and politics driving biotech today?\u00a0Sign up<\/a>\u00a0to get our biotech newsletter in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Today, we look at how a China biotech crackdown could benefit Europe, what a rival drug failure might mean\u00a0for Alnylam, the algorithm behind the Moderna-Merck cancer vaccine, and a landmark approval in pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n

RIP, Tim Curry. I shall mourn how humbly you buttle. <\/p>\n

The need-to-know this morning<\/p>\n

Moderna is raising $2 billion<\/a> in convertible debt. The new financing comes one week after the Phase 3 success of its personalized cancer vaccine.<\/p>\n

The power of the Moderna-Merck\u00a0cancer vaccine may hinge on an algorithm<\/p>\n

Moderna and Merck\u2019s personalized cancer vaccine<\/a> could become the first approved medicine whose genetic instructions are essentially written by an algorithm. For each patient, software analyzes thousands of tumor mutations and chooses 34 neoantigens to encode into a bespoke mRNA vaccine \u2014 a regulatory and computational experiment that some researchers now believe could be the treatment\u2019s \u201csecret sauce.\u201d <\/p>\n

That said, some skeptical Wall Street investors think that perhaps the personalization isn\u2019t necessary at all, and that mRNA itself primes tumors to respond better to Keytruda. So what\u2019s in that algorithm? <\/p>\n

\u201cI have no idea,\u201d said Alex Rubinsteyn, a cancer vaccine expert at the University of North Carolina. \u201cEveryone claims what they have is proprietary intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

U.S. crackdown on Chinese biotech could benefit Europe<\/p>\n

A bipartisan bill aimed at limiting U.S. biotech ties with China could end up handing Europe a competitive advantage, executives from the Croatia-based CRO Optimapharm opine for STAT. The proposed Biotech Investment National Security Act, or BINSA, would broaden federal oversight of U.S. investment and dealmaking with Chinese biotech companies. However, Optimapharm\u2019s argue, companies could simply route the drugs discovered in China through European sponsors \u2014 a strategy dubbed \u201cEurowashing.\u201d <\/p>\n

This potentially could shift licensing profits, tax revenue, and clinical development activity away from the U.S. Also, biotechs often default to crowded U.S., Australian, and Western European trial sites rather than considering faster and cheaper alternatives in Central and Eastern Europe. Whether BINSA passes or not, the executives\u00a0say, companies should diversify their clinical trial strategies now before geopolitical tensions make those decisions for them.<\/p>\n

Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n

A heart drug failure casts shadow over Alnylam<\/p>\n

The European Society of Cardiology Congress in Munich could offer crucial clues about the future of Alnylam\u2019s ATTR-CM franchise, STAT\u2019s Adam Feuerstein writes. AstraZeneca and Ionis will reveal details on why their rival gene-silencing drug, eplontersen, failed a pivotal Phase 3 study. <\/p>\n

The drug showed no cardiovascular benefit when added to widely used stabilizer drugs \u2014 which suggests that injectable gene silencers may not add much benefit to much to easier-to-use oral treatments. <\/p>\n

This will matter for Alnylam\u2019s blockbuster, Amvuttra, and especially next-generation nucresiran, now in Phase 3 testing. Alnylam says nucresiran\u2019s greater potency and differently designed trial can succeed where eplontersen stumbled, but investors aren\u2019t entirely convinced.<\/p>\n

Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n

FDA approves landmark pancreatic cancer drug<\/p>\n

The FDA has approved the buzzy pancreatic cancer drug made by Revolution Medicines. Rasonque is the first treatment to attack a genetic driver of pancreatic cancer \u2014 and what oncologists are calling the disease\u2019s biggest therapeutic advance in decades. <\/p>\n

In a pivotal trial, the RAS-targeting drug nearly doubled median survival to 13.2 months from 6.7 months with chemotherapy in previously treated patients. This establishes a new standard of care for a cancer with a dismal 8% five-year survival rate. The approval also caps a decades-long effort to drug the once-considered \u201cundruggable\u201d RAS proteins and transforms Revolution into a leader in targeted cancer medicines. <\/p>\n

The drug will cost $39,800 per month and carries substantial skin and mouth toxicities, and patients eventually develop resistance. But it\u00a0could potentially have benefits in\u00a0other RAS-driven tumors, including lung and colorectal cancers.<\/p>\n

Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n

More reads<\/p>\n

Akeso CEO looks beyond lung cancer with biliary tract win, counters ivonescimab debate, FiercePharma<\/a><\/p>\n

JATT mastermind launches latest biotech-focused SPAC via $60 million IPO, FierceBiotech<\/a><\/p>\n

Biohaven strikes $795M deal for commercial partner in epilepsy, Endpoints<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to stay on top of the science and politics driving biotech today?\u00a0Sign up\u00a0to get our biotech newsletter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20662],"tags":[11153,12625,11314,25109,1188],"class_list":["post-112313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-astrazeneca","tag-astrazeneca","tag-biotechnology","tag-drug-development","tag-drug-prices","tag-research"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117168203508285443","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}