Positive results from clinical trials with their coronavirus vaccine candidates have pushed shares of Moderna and BioNTech into the clouds. Neither of these companies has developed a marketable product yet, but their market caps have risen to a combined $62 billion at recent prices.
With plenty of competition on the way, neither of these companies can justify their recent stock-market valuations with potential sales from just one coronavirus vaccine. Can these companies be expected to produce multiple blockbuster drugs? Here’s what you need to know about the road ahead for Moderna, BioNTech, and a wave of younger businesses developing similar drugs.
Shooting the messenger
All of the experimental drugs in Moderna’s pipeline and most of the drugs in BioNTech’s pipeline rely on strands of messenger-RNA (mRNA) that instruct cells to produce a specific therapeutic protein. Unfortunately, safely getting strands of mRNA into a position where they can provide a benefit has been a lot more challenging than these companies’ founders imagined when they began pursuing mRNA-based treatment options over a decade ago.
