Moderna and Merck shares surged yesterday after the companies said a personalized mRNA treatment hit its target of preventing skin cancer from recurring or spreading in a late-stage clinical trial.

• The customized therapy, which could see a commercial launch next year, could also be adapted for other cancers of the kidney, bladder and pancreas.

The big picture: The results could lead to a remarkable turnaround for Moderna, whose market value plummeted more than 90% after demand for its COVID vaccine declined post-pandemic. The company this month also won FDA approval for a new mRNA seasonal flu vaccine.

• "People will experience this as ... the COVID company now [takes on] cancer," Moderna president Stephen Hoge told Axios. "But for those of us that live in it, it's like the cancer company that pivoted on a dime to help with COVID has pivoted back and really finally come home."

Driving the news: The experimental therapy, called intismeran, was tested in combination with Merck's cancer drug Keytruda in more than 1,100 patients with high-risk melanoma that had been surgically removed.

• The combination demonstrated a "clinically meaningful improvement" over treating the skin cancers with Keytruda alone.

How it works: The mRNA-based drug essentially trains the immune system to find mutations in a patient that cause tumors. That's a contrast to chemotherapy, which damages or destroys cancer cells.

The latest: The full results of the trial will be released at an upcoming medical meeting.

• But Wall Street has already responded enthusiastically, with shares of Moderna surging 177% yesterday, while Merck shares closed up 12.6%.
• "This is a landmark moment," TD Cowen analysts wrote in an investor note. "We view the result as a significant validation of the ... platform."

What we're watching: Whether the potential success of an mRNA-based cancer therapy could help lift the bigger cloud hanging over the technology.

• Political backlash following the pandemic — including the Trump administration pulling nearly $500 million in federal funding for mRNA research — raised questions about the field's long-term prospects.

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A federal judge yesterday froze a Trump administration overhaul of the government's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program that would have mandated an abstinence-only approach to pregnancy prevention.

Why it matters: It marked the latest setback to efforts to shift funding away from sex-education programs that the administration contends promote risky behavior for minors.

Driving the news: U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, wrote that the policy shift was likely arbitrary and capricious, but didn't order the reinstatement of about $68 million in terminated grants because of uncertainty over the court's power to do so.

• "Millions of American teenagers have sex," Cooper wrote at the beginning of the 61-page opinion, noting the teen pregnancy rate has plummeted since Congress began funding the grants in 2010.
• He criticized HHS for essentially repackaging policy changes and vague requirements contained in a 2025 guidance document that another federal judge vacated.

The case was brought in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Hennepin County, Minnesota; King County, Washington; Planned Parenthood of the Heartland; and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.

"Dr. Overton's active role in last week's nonsensical vaccine executive order calls into question her commitment to standing up for sound science and protecting children's health. That alone is almost disqualifying."

⛑️ New CDC director Erica Schwartz confronted concerns about her independence in a meeting with agency staff and said she would speak "truth to power." (Stat)

💸 Congress is funding CDC programs that are dead or nearly dead, because the experts who did the work were laid off by the administration or remain on leave. (AP)

🤕 As the populist left calls for "Medicare for all," the Affordable Care Act is becoming even more frail. (Economist)