Moderna Blog: News and Updates

Moderna 2019 Shareholder Letter

January 6, 2020

By Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer

Dear fellow shareholders,

New positive clinical data marked the high points of a productive inflection year for Moderna, and we are entering 2020 with clear priorities, a strong cash balance and a talented team of relentless employees focused on achieving our Mission. I am excited and humbled by the opportunity to bring a new class of medicines to patients and I believe our recent advances have put us closer than ever before to that ultimate goal: launching several first-in-class medicines where there are no treatments today. 

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Questions & Answers with Joe Cabral

December 19, 2019

Moderna People Profile

We caught up with alumnus Joe Cabral, who left Moderna to pursue a full-time MBA at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. 

Joe talks about doing work with big-picture clarity, the importance of being intentional and the best career advice he’s received. 

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Questions & Answers with Ander Tallett

October 31, 2019

Moderna People Profile

We caught up with our colleague Ander Tallett, who recently returned from parental leave after the birth of his second son.

Ander talks about life as a former serial entrepreneur—going from tech startup to biotech—and finding a balance between family and work.

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Sharing Science at IDWeek 2019

October 7, 2019

By Wellington Sun, M.D., Head of Vaccine Strategy and Regulatory Affairs

We recently returned from our first IDWeek, where we presented data from two of our prophylactic mRNA vaccines. Learn more about the data and our commitment to infectious diseases.

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Working with Others to Move in a Bold New Direction

September 27, 2019

By Stephen Hoge, M.D., President

Hear from Stephen Hoge on our new research collaboration with Harvard University, aimed at helping us expand in a bold new direction.

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Two New Scientific Milestones Validate Moderna’s mRNA Platform

September 12, 2019

By Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer

Read more from CEO Stephane Bancel about today’s R&D Day and how new Phase 1 data validate the scientific foundation of our work in the latest Moderna blog.

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Questions & Answers with Jackie Milton and Örn Almarsson, Ph.D.

August 30, 2019

Moderna People Profile

We caught up with two of our colleagues from Delivery Sciences, who recently returned from month-long sabbaticals, to hear about their time away and how it has shaped their perspectives on life and work.

Jackie and Örn talk nanotechnologies, pushing boundaries and finding comfort in the familiar.

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Celebrating a Year of Progress at Norwood

July 17, 2019

By Juan Andres, Chief Technical Operations and Quality Officer, and the Norwood Leadership Team

Happy anniversary to our Moderna team at Norwood! One year ago, we opened our digitally-enabled and environmentally-sustainable 200,000 square foot clinical development manufacturing plant in Norwood, Massachusetts, to help advance Moderna’s pipeline of mRNA-based medicines.

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Questions & Answers with Nicholas J. Amato, Ph.D.

July 11, 2019

Moderna People Profile

We caught up with our colleague Nicholas Amato after an inspiring evening at Boston’s Symphony Hall, where he shared his musical talents as a member of the Kendall Square Orchestra’s Symphony for Science—in support of the fight against Frontotemporal Disorders.

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Lending Our Hands to Help Raise Awareness While Working Toward CMV Prevention

June 18, 2019

By Lori Panther, M.D., M.P.H., Director, Clinical Development, Infectious Diseases

During our most recent Town Hall meeting, the Moderna community demonstrated its solidarity by joining the “Stop CMV Hands Campaign.” I’m so proud of my colleagues for lending their hands, as well as their hearts and minds, to advance the science behind Moderna’s mRNA-based vaccine to prevent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection!

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Advancing the Frontiers of Our Platform Science

May 7, 2019

By Stephen Hoge, M.D. and Melissa Moore, Ph.D.

Today, we hosted our second annual Science Day symposium. This day is our chance to provide insights into the diverse efforts we have underway to advance our platform science and our research into how to use mRNA as a medicine. In the last four years, the platform has produced over 20 investigational mRNA medicines, 11 of which have already advanced into human clinical trials. It’s our hope that these programs represent just the first wave of a new class of medicines.

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Working to Change the Future for Patients with Rare Metabolic Disorders

February 28, 2019

By Lin Guey, Ph.D., Senior Director, Rare Diseases

Kathy Stagni gave birth to a baby girl, Melissa, in 1988. Only four days later, Melissa slipped into a coma and was diagnosed with a rare metabolic disorder called propionic acidemia, or PA for short. PA is caused by a missing enzyme involved in breaking down certain proteins and fats and is part of a group of disorders called organic acidemias. Currently, there are no approved medicines that treat the underlying causes of PA or other organic acidemias.

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An Important Step in the Advancement of mRNA medicines: Newly Published Clinical Data Show the Early Potential of VEGF-A mRNA as a Regenerative Therapeutic

February 20, 2019

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

This week we were very excited to share newly published clinical data showing the potential of mRNA encoding vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) as a regenerative therapeutic in patients. Published in Nature Communications, these findings represent an important milestone as we seek to further understand and establish the safety and efficacy of delivering mRNA to human tissues.

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Using mRNA to Encode Biologics: Charting a Potential New Course for Medicine

February 5, 2019

By Stephen Hoge, M.D., President

Today, Moderna announced that we dosed the first monoclonal antibody encoded by mRNA in a human. mRNA-1944 is an antibody against Chikungunya virus and the first development candidate from Moderna’s systemic therapeutics modalities to start clinical testing. This marks an important moment for our team and their efforts to develop a new class of medicines based on mRNA.

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Demonstrating a Commitment to Corporate Citizenship from the Ground Up: Building an Energy Efficient and Sustainable Manufacturing Site

July 18, 2018

By Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer

Although Moderna is a young company, we are planning for long-term impact. Our mission is to deliver on the promise of mRNA science to make transformative medicines for patients. But we also believe we have a significant opportunity to build a company that can be a model for corporate citizenship.

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A Potential Treatment for Heart Failure Using mRNA to Boost VEGF-A Production in the Heart

July 3, 2018

By Regina Fritsche-Danielson, Vice President and Head of Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism, IMED Biotech Unit, AstraZeneca

It isn’t often that a group of scientists get to work on something as exciting as heart muscle regeneration. But a joint research team from AstraZeneca and Moderna have seen encouraging results by stimulating the growth of new blood vessels at the borders of damaged heart muscle tissue.

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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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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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Shedding light on our prophylactic vaccines’ mechanism of action

September 26, 2017

By Giuseppe Ciaramella, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer, Infectious Diseases, Moderna

When I describe leading infectious disease research efforts at Moderna, I often say it’s a bit like being a kid in a candy shop. We have this amazing, versatile tool in our hands. And we’re pushing the boundaries of this platform technology’s capabilities by exploring a range of options simultaneously – both across therapeutic areas and within therapeutic areas.

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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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A Milestone Week at Moderna

April 28, 2017

Stéphane Bancel
Chief Executive Officer, Moderna

Dear All,

Welcome to the Moderna Blog.

We’ve considered launching this blog for a while – and this week seemed like the perfect time.

Why launch a blog? We wanted to have a channel to communicate directly and more personally to all those interested in Moderna.

We plan to share insights and our viewpoint on important topics related to our company, our science and pipeline, and our industry as a whole. The blog also will give various team members a platform to talk about what motivates, inspires and drives them in their work here.

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