Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) today announced the dosing of the first U.S. participant in its Phase 1 study evaluating mRNA-4200, a tumor-targeted cancer antigen therapy candidate, in patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors. mRNA-4200 encodes for seven antigens commonly shared across patients and tumor types and is designed to help induce and expand T-cell responses against selected tumor targets.

"mRNA-4200 represents our third off-the-shelf cancer antigen therapy candidate and builds on our efforts to explore broad applicability across multiple cancer types," said David Berman, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Development Officer of Moderna. "By encoding multiple shared tumor targets, this investigational therapy reflects our ongoing efforts to expand the potential of cancer immunotherapy beyond single-target approaches as we continue working to transform cancer care for patients."

The first dose was administered by Dr. William McKean, Clinical Investigator at START Mountain Region in Salt Lake City, Utah, part of The START Center for Cancer Research, the world's largest community-based early-phase oncology site network.

"The first patient dosed in a study represents far more than an operational milestone--it marks the beginning of evaluating a new therapeutic approach that has the potential to impact patients with advanced cancer," said Dr. McKean. "We are proud to continue our collaboration with Moderna and to support the clinical development of mRNA-4200 by providing patients with early access to promising investigational treatments while generating the clinical evidence needed to advance cancer research."

The Phase 1 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT06880549) is an open-label, multicenter, dose-escalation study that will evaluate the safety and tolerability of mRNA-4200 administered with checkpoint inhibitor therapy in adult participants with advanced solid tumors.

mRNA-4200 was developed in collaboration with Immatics under the Database Program. mRNA-4200 incorporates targets identified using Immatics' XPRESIDENT® target discovery and validation platform and its bioinformatics and AI platform XCUBE®.