Noubar Afeyan, co-founder and president of drug maker Moderna, says the technology used to make the company’s Covid-19 vaccine could change the way scientists think about therapy and vaccines for other diseases in the future.
“We’ve actually demonstrated in many different therapeutic areas and vaccines that this type of technology could actually create a whole new portion of the medical repertoire we have to fight disease,” Afeyan told CNN. Friday.
Moderna is one of the companies that initiated the mRNA technology on which the vaccine is based. The Pfizer 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 produce a protein. In the case of this vaccine, the mRNA instructs the cells in the body to produce a certain piece of the virus’s spike protein. Then the immune system sees him, recognizes him as a stranger, and is ready to attack when the actual infection occurs.
“We wanted to do the work to allow such a molecule to become 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 therapeutic vaccine or whatever you want, that was the dream.”
He says this technology will change people’s perception of how long a vaccine should take, adding that “the Covid-19 vaccine example will create a new path.”
“It may not be possible to always go from zero to a vaccine in less than a year, but certainly the five to ten years it took was somewhat based on older technology, and I will also say, the assumption that we should give so much time, that we don’t have to do it anymore, “he said.
Some contexts: The FDA Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biologicals met on Thursday to discuss the Moderna vaccine and expects to authorize it for emergency use in the coming days. Once that happens, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar says the federal government has nearly 5.9 million doses ready to be shipped.
Follow the co-founder of Moderna: