AI did not suddenly discover a cancer vaccine. That is engagement bait. Moderna and Merck reported positive Phase 3 results for Intismeran p…

AI did not suddenly discover a cancer vaccine. That is engagement bait. Moderna and Merck reported positive Phase 3 results for Intismeran plus Keytruda in 1,137 melanoma patients after surgery. This is a real and important scientific result. But the vaccine entered human trials in 2017, and Moderna was already using internal bioinformatics algorithms to select each patient’s tumor targets. AI helps analyze mutations and choose up to 34 neoantigens for the personalized treatment. It did not independently invent the vaccine or cure cancer. The full Phase 3 numbers have not been released. Overall survival is still unknown. The treatment is not approved, not a universal cancer vaccine and was tested with Keytruda, not alone. BioNTech, Roche, NEC, Transgene and Evaxion have used similar computational or machine learning approaches for years. This is a breakthrough in genomics, immunology, mRNA, manufacturing and clinical science. Rebranding all of that as “AI discovered a cancer vaccine today” is pure AI hype. With cancer vaccines now being discovered with AI ($MRNA), it seems that the US government might actually grow its way out of its budget deficit. It feels like we're in the early innings of the healthcare system becoming unburdened by many terminal illnesses.

Source: Gary Marcus (X) | 2026-08-20