moderna

The pharmaceutical space is characterized by extreme uncertainty. You never know what drugs are going to pan out. The lead time for development is extremely long. Market size is inherently unknowable. And the regulatory and pricing climate is constantly changing. So, how does a company decide where to invest its cash? On this episode, we speak with Moderna's chief financial officer, Jamey Mock, about how he views the problem. He explains the process by which the vaccine maker chooses which bets to make, how changing fortunes within the stock market affect corporate decision-making and the role of the government in accelerating progress and de-risking investment.

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Sasha Latypova discusses leaked Moderna files showing FDA Colluded With Moderna. 

According to Sasha Latypova, an ex-pharmaceutical industry executive, documents obtained from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine suggest the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Moderna colluded to bypass regulatory and scientific standards used to ensure products are safe.

• mRNA research before COVID and how "mRNA is code" [3:21]
• The early days of COVID: designing a vaccine in 48 hours [5:44]
• The software behind the vaccine: getting mRNA researchers out of Excel and into a drug design studio [9:11]
• The first draft of the vaccine was the final draft [11:10]
• How the government sped up vaccine development for COVID [12:18]
• What other new vaccines will come from mRNA?  [15:34]
• How far are we from these mRNA vaccines? What do we need for them to be widely available? [25:31]
• Open sourcing Moderna  [27:53]
• When will COVID vaccines be available for a five year old? [29:47]
• The three factors that matter when dealing with COVID variants [30:46]
• How might open source shake up biotech [36:41]
• The moonshot applications for mRNA therapeutics  [39:43]
• Advice for building a new category in a regulated environment [46:49]
• The clinical or regulatory advances needed to speed drug time to market [51:08]
• Challenge trials for vaccines: good or bad idea? [59:11]

It's Time to Heal, Mondays at 5pm PT on Clubhouse. Join the a16z bio team — Jorge Conde, Vineeta Agarwala, Julie Yoo, and Vijay Pande — plus special guests as they explore all the ways that biology is technology.

The Boston-based biotech eschewed a traditional approach to vaccine development, instead pitching its use of mRNA technology to investors. That pitch paid off this year as the company stands to be one of the first to bring a Covid-19 vaccine to market. Hannah Kuchler, the FT’s US pharma and biotech correspondent, reports on Moderna’s race to find an immunisation for the novel coronavirus.  

The FT is making key coronavirus coverage free to read for everyone. Go to ft.com/coronavirusfree to read the latest.

Read more here: Moderna’s Covid vaccine offers vindication of its unconventional approach

Review clips: Yahoo Finance, CNBC

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