Merck CEO Says Personalized Cancer Vaccine With Moderna Will Get Faster to Make

The vaccine’s current turnaround takes six weeks, from sequencing a patient’s tumor to delivering it to a hospital. Davis said Merck and Moderna will push for improvement, but the immediate focus is making sure supply and the market are ready to bring the innovation forward.

“We are going to drive for improvement, but right now the focus really is, let’s make sure we have the supply ready, we have the market ready to bring this important innovation to the market, and then we’ll talk about how do we accelerate,” Davis told CNBC in an exclusive interview. “But I do think over time you’re going to see that timeline shortened.”

The personalized vaccine is designed to target specific mutations in each patient’s tumor rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach. That makes production complicated. The goal is to train the immune system to recognize and kill unique cancer markers, then pair that response with Merck’s immunotherapy Keytruda to help the body attack cancer more effectively.

Davis acknowledged that manufacturing the vaccine is a “complex system,” but said Merck and Moderna have the process “down to a very tight science.”

“I’m actually very confident that we’re not going to have complexities in getting this to patients in a very timely fashion,” he added. “We’re doing it in our clinicals, and I only see improvement going forward.”

His comments followed the two companies’ release in August of positive initial data from a late-stage trial of the shot in combination with Keytruda in melanoma patients. Davis said Merck is also examining the vaccine in trials across other tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer, types of bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma.

“You like to talk that maybe you can start moving toward talking about a cure,” he said. “We’re not there yet, but we’re moving in a direction with technology that’s really unprecedented.”

Davis spoke to CNBC after Merck on Wednesday officially opened a new 120,000-square-foot research facility named Advance at its West Point, Pennsylvania, campus. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro joined Merck executives and other government officials for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Merck said the facility features highly automated robotic systems and advanced digital AI capabilities and is designed to streamline analysis of biological samples from its drug programs and improve research and development.

The opening comes as Merck prepares for the loss of exclusivity of Keytruda, one of the world’s top-selling drugs and widely viewed as the backbone of modern cancer treatment. Keytruda’s core U.S. compound patent expires in December 2028, while secondary patents extend protection into 2029 and beyond.

Merck has implemented a multi-layered strategy to turn the Keytruda transition into what it views as a manageable “hill” rather than a sharp revenue cliff. The plan includes accelerating internal research and directing $65 billion in external acquisitions and licensing agreements over five years to build its pipeline of next-generation medicines. Merck is also developing new forms of Keytruda and combination regimens that patients can transition to, protecting the drug’s revenue even after key patents expire before 2030.

The Food and Drug Administration in September 2025 approved a subcutaneous form of Keytruda, which is administered under the skin in minutes. The standard form is an intravenous infusion that takes around 30 minutes. But Merck faces a legal battle over the newer version in some European markets.

A Dutch court issued an injunction earlier this month blocking Merck from selling, stocking or manufacturing subcutaneous Keytruda in eight European countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The ruling followed a patent infringement suit brought by biotech company Halozyme Therapeutics over its own subcutaneous drug delivery platform. Merck has said it strongly disagrees with the rulings and plans to appeal. Patients can still receive the original form of Keytruda in Europe while the patent dispute unfolds.

Halozyme has also sued Merck for patent infringement in the U.S., alleging the subcutaneous formulation of Keytruda infringes 15 patents the biotech has filed since 2011.

Merck is focused on rolling out a slate of new drugs. That includes Winrevair, a treatment for a rare, life-threatening lung disease that was approved in 2024 and acquired a few years earlier through Merck’s $11.5 billion acquisition of Acceleron.

Editor's Summary

Merck CEO Rob Davis said the company expects to shorten manufacturing time for its personalized cancer vaccine with Moderna, which is being tested with Keytruda in melanoma and other tumors. Merck also opened a new Pennsylvania research facility as it prepares for Keytruda patent expirations and defends subcutaneous Keytruda in Europe against Halozyme patent claims. The company is pursuing new drugs such as Winrevair and a broader pipeline to offset the Keytruda transition.