Moderna appears to have accomplished what seemed nearly impossible a year ago. In less than 10 months, the biotech developed a novel coronavirus vaccine that seems to be both safe and effective — highly effective. Moderna announced earlier this week that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, achieved an efficacy of 94.5% in interim results from a large late-stage clinical study.
The company won’t have enough safety data to file for an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the vaccine until later this month. But the chances for Moderna to win a Food and Drug Administration EUA should now be very good. Success for the experimental vaccine could also bode well for the biotech’s other pipeline programs.
It’s understandable that Moderna’s executives are feeling really confident right now about the company’s future. But I suspect more than a few jaws dropped after reading what CEO Stephane Bancel told EndPoints News: “We could end up being three, four years from now the biggest vaccine company in the world.”
Was Bancel simply overly exuberant? Or could Moderna actually become the biggest vaccine company in the world within the next four years?
