Moderna Blog

Expanding Our Commitment to Rare Disease Therapeutics

February 28, 2018

By John Mendlein, Ph.D., President, Corporate and Product Strategy

Each year, the last day of February serves as a reminder to pause and reflect on the challenges and unique needs of patients and families living with rare diseases. It is an opportunity for all members of the patient, medical, and scientific communities to shine a light on the urgent need to improve the care and support for those impacted by such conditions. At Moderna, we are working to intensify this light across an array of rare genetic diseases – and our intent is to bring the full potential of our mRNA-based medicines to create new therapies for untreatable, and previously undruggable ailments.

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The Potential of Moderna's mRNA Platform for Developing a Vaccine to Fight CMV

February 20, 2018

By Mike Watson, MB ChB, SVP Vaccine Partnerships & Health Impact

It is natural to think that a viral infection will always manifest itself as an illness or disease until either the body has cleared it or the virus kills its host. In fact, there are many viruses whose success relies on their ability to enter our bodies and hide without causing an acute illness or alerting our immune systems. These sleeper viruses then periodically wake up and use their host to spread silently to their contacts. The herpes family of viruses are masters of this tactic, and Cytomegalovirus, or CMV, is a member of this family. CMV is estimated to live silently within 60 percent of the U.S. and similar populations – and in nearly 80 percent of people worldwide.

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Delivering on the promise of mRNA therapies for rare diseases

December 19, 2017

By Stephen Hoge, M.D., President, Moderna
and Paolo Martini, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Rare Diseases

2017 has been both an exciting, and by all measures, a highly productive year here at Moderna. We began with four clinical programs and are ending the year with ten. In January, we unveiled 12 development candidates (DCs) and have since added six more to our pipeline.

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New Treatment for Heart Failure — At the Start of Something Special

November 29, 2017

By Regina Fritsche-Danielson
Senior Director and Head of Bioscience Heart Failure, IMED Biotech Unit, AstraZeneca

It isn’t often that a group of scientists gets to work on something as exciting as heart muscle regeneration. But a joint research team from AstraZeneca and Moderna, has seen encouraging results from stimulating new blood vessels to grow at the borders of half-dead heart muscle tissue and watching it take on a new lease of life.

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An Emotionally Special Milestone

November 15, 2017

By Tal Zaks, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Medical Officer, Moderna

Today marks an emotionally special milestone for me, as a medical oncologist, and for our entire team.  This morning, we announced that we have dosed our first patient in the Phase 1 study of our personalized cancer vaccine, mRNA-4157.  We have an opportunity to advance a medicine that is so novel, so breakthrough, it could truly transform the treatment of cancer.  And that could enable us to help many, many patients more effectively fight this disease – and, for some, even cure it.

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Proud, Passionate and Mission-Driven for Patients

October 19, 2017

By Annie Drapeau
Chief Human Resources Officer, Moderna

This afternoon we announced that, for the third year in a row, we have been named one of the top 10 employers in Science magazine’s annual Top Employers survey. We are incredibly proud of this recognition, and are honored to be named on this list with so many other companies that we admire.

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Continuing to Gain Momentum

September 13, 2017

Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer, Moderna

2017 is a key inflection point for Moderna on our journey to make mRNA medicines a reality for patients.

Our big news: major steps forward for our therapeutic modalities …

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Pioneering A Big Idea with An Unborrowed Vision

June 28, 2017

Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D.
Co-founder and Chairman, Moderna Therapeutics
CEO, Flagship Pioneering

In April 2015, Luke Timmerman wrote an article that appeared in Forbes titled, ‘The Oprahs of Biotech: People Who Can Go by First Name Only.’

‘Stéphane’ was among the names in Luke’s article.

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Building The Digital Biotech Company

June 22, 2017

Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer, Moderna

My first leadership roles in the biopharma industry were within a large pharma company. This was a phenomenal experience. I gained a strong understanding of how organizational infrastructures support established, global R&D, manufacturing and commercial enterprises to advance medicines to help patients. But I also saw how silos of information,  a blend of analog processes and digital ones, and a lack of integration among heterogeneous systems and geographic locations led to many lost opportunities.

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Advancing Disruptive mRNA Vaccines:  Opportunity and Obligation

May 4, 2017

Michael Watson, MB ChB, MRCP, AFPM
President, Infectious Diseases, Moderna

Evan Rachlin, MD
Senior Director of Strategic Planning, Moderna

As physicians by training, we’re often asked by friends and family why we made the decision to jump from clinical care to the biopharmaceutical space. The potential to bring new medicines to patients – medicines that can impact and improve many, many lives – is tantalizing.

What attracted both of us to Moderna specifically was its potential to bring not just one or two new medicines to market – but to possibly launch an entire new class of medicines that could help people impacted by many types of diseases. Go big or go home.

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