Noubar Afeyan, the co-founder and chairman of drug company Moderna, says the technology used to make the company’s Covid-19 vaccine could change how scientists think about therapies and vaccines for other diseases in the future. change.
“We have shown in many different disease therapeutic areas and vaccines that this type of technology can actually create a whole new slice of the medical repertoire that we have to fight disease,” Afeyan told CNN on Friday.
Moderna is one of the companies pioneering the mRNA technology on which the vaccine is based. Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine also uses this approach.
How it works: Messenger RNA is a single strand of the genetic code that cells can ‘read’ and use to make a protein. In the case of this vaccine, the mRNA instructs cells in the body to make the specific piece of the virus’ spike protein. Then the immune system sees it, recognizes it as foreign, and is willing to attack if an actual infection occurs.
“We wanted to do the work to turn such a molecule into a drug,” Afeyan said. “The difference is that if you’re dealing with an information molecule, a code molecule, by changing the code you should be able to make any drug or vaccine you want, that was the dream.”
He says this technology will change people’s perception of how long it should take to make a vaccine, adding that the “Covid-19 vaccine sample will break new ground.”
“May not always be able to go from zero to a vaccine in less than a year, but the five to ten years it took was certainly based somewhat on older technology and also, I will say, the assumption that it was to take so long, which we no longer have to make, ”he said.
Some context: The FDA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biologicals met on Thursday to discuss Moderna’s vaccine, and is expected to provide emergency approval for use in the coming days. Once it does, Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, says the federal government has nearly 5.9 million doses ready to be shipped.
Check out the Moderna co-founder: