Merck CEO tells CNBC he expects breakthrough cancer vaccine will become faster to make

Merck CEO Rob Davis told CNBC on Wednesday that he expects the company's breakthrough cancer vaccine with Moderna to get faster to manufacture over time.

Shortening the current six-week timeline could potentially help the companies reach more patients.

"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," he told CNBC in an exclusive interview. "But I do think over time you're going to see that timeline shortened."

The personalized cancer vaccine turnaround spans from sequencing a patient's tumor to delivering it to the hospital. Merck and Moderna's vaccine is designed to target the specific mutations in each individual patient's tumor rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach, which makes it complicated to produce.

The idea is to train the immune system to recognize and kill those unique cancer markers and then pair that response with Merck's blockbuster immunotherapy Keytruda, which aims to help the body attack the 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 come after the two companies in August released positive initial data from a late-stage trial on the shot in combination with Keytruda in melanoma patients. Davis said the company 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 earlier Wednesday officially opened its new 120,000-square-foot research facility, which it has named Advance, in its West Point, Pennsylvania, campus. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro joined Merck executives and other government officials for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the launch of the facility, which features highly automated robotic systems and advanced digital AI capabilities.

Merck says the facility is designed to streamline the analysis of biological samples from the company's ongoing drug programs and improve its research and development.

The opening of the new facility comes as Merck prepares for the upcoming loss of exclusivity of Keytruda, which is one of the world's top-selling drugs and is 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.