Possible Skin Cancer Vaccine Shows Promise In Late Stage Trial. Moderna Stock Skyrockets.

News of a potential personalized cancer vaccine more than doubled the value of Moderna's stock Wednesday.

Moderna and Merck jointly announced Wednesday that a late-stage trial produced positive results, CNBC reported. According to the network, the mRNA-based shot combined with Merck's immunotherapy Keytruda hit goals in the third phase of a drug trial that involved 1,100 patients.

"It's a big moment for medicine, a big moment for patients," Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

On Tuesday, Moderna's stock closed at $62.51. Early Wednesday, the stock had surpassed $144 a share, more than doubling after the news. Merck's stock initially jumped 8 percent.

The clinical trial focused on the deadliest form of skin cancer known as melanoma. The landmark study essentially allows customized cancer treatment meant to address the unique characteristics of each patient's illness. Bancel described the findings as a "pivotal moment" in the field of cancer research.

"For many years, the idea of creating an mRNA treatment designed specifically for an individual patient's cancer was aspirational. We are now helping turn that vision into a reality," he said. "Together with Merck, we have started to demonstrate the transformative potential of this technology to address critical unmet needs in the adjuvant melanoma setting."

Professor Georgina Long, the study's principal investigator and medical director of Melanoma Institute Australia, described the study as a "landmark moment" for adjuvant melanoma treatment.

She said it was the first Phase 3 study that showed intismeran, a treatment designed based on the unique mutational "fingerprint" of a patient's own tumor, can help reduce recurrence or death. The treatment was delivered in combination with pembrolizumab. Merk's brand name for pembrolizumab is KEYTRUDA.

"Intismeran in combination with pembrolizumab has the potential to establish a new treatment paradigm in the adjuvant melanoma setting, helping patients remain cancer-free for longer," Long said.

Dr. Dean Y. Li, president of Merck Research Laboratories, said that one of the goals of adjuvant therapy is to increase the possibility of a cure in more patients.

"These first Phase 3 findings for intismeran in combination with KEYTRUDA as adjuvant therapy reinforce the promise of a more personalized approach to cancer treatment," he said.

He said the research has the potential to "redefine" how stage 4 melanoma patients are medically treated. He said the two companies are looking forward to presenting their findings and sharing the information with regulatory authorities.

The INTerpath program currently consists of nine total Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials across multiple tumor types and stages of disease, including melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma.