2/ Within 48 hrs(!) of having a digital copy of the virus genome, Moderna designed a vaccine - the exact version now being shipped - without having access to the physical virus.
This is *the machine that made the vaccine*
We used to grow our vaccines; now we can print them.
3/ The tech works by delivering mRNA instructions for cells to make a protein. In this case, the vaccine is delivering instructions for making the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (so our immune system learns to attack it).
@sbancel describes it as sorta like making chocolate mousse :)
4/ Based on Phase 3 data, this vaccine is ~95% effective.
Can you imagine knowing how important your work is, working non-stop, waiting for the data and approval? Bancel describes all this + the moment he shared the news with his family (spoiler alert: there was crying)
5/ (On a personal note, Stephane supported me throughout my own entrepreneurial journey, as both an informal mentor + board member of my startups. So I had a front-row seat watching him build Moderna, the company behind this vaccine. Thank you, @sbancel)
6/ Stephane represents the combo of qualities that will build the future of bio: an entrepreneur’s relentless drive + an engineer’s discipline. Vision, and a way to make it happen.
7/ Emergency use authorization will immediately release ~6 million doses; the US government has purchased 200 million doses through June 2021.
8/ mRNA vaccines are a bright light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. But we’re still in the tunnel—so stay safe, stay vigilant.
9/ The story of mRNA vaccines—and healthcare workers—is a story of care + ingenuity. This innovation shows that we’ve only begun scratching the surface of what the future can look like. Hope.
1/ Recently $NVS announced a $2.1m gene therapy, the most expensive medicine in history. Gene therapies are potentially curative. How should we price them? How will we pay for them? Could a cure be considered a pre-existing condition? 🧬 💊 a16z.com/2019/05/30/cur…
2/ Rare disease therapies are expensive because: i) they treat devastating diseases, ii) patient pops are small, so biopharma recoups R&D investment w/ high price, iii) payors tolerate because limited risk of many patients in a given plan + limited # of new therapies to cover.
3/ Individually, rare diseases (by definition) affect few people; collectively, 30m Americans (1 in 10) suffer from one of 7000 rare diseases. There are now lots of gene therapies on the horizon for lots of rare diseases; many >$1m therapies in our future. How will we pay?
💰💰💰
1/ A thought for early-stage bio companies on the eve of the upcoming #JPM19 networking bonanza in SF: Bio entrepreneurs, especially first-time founders, often underestimate the importance of analyzing and selecting potential disease areas
(thread 👇)
2/ Your resources are (probably) finite. Your platform may have broad potential but if your goal is to develop therapeutics (Tx) or diagnostics (Dx), you need a rigorous process/framework for selecting disease indications. It should be an early core competency for your company
3/ This is particularly important given how long, risky and expensive it can be to develop a new Tx or Dx. We’ve written previously on 16 pitfalls to avoid when building a computational Tx startup, many of which touch on this issue (especially #5) a16z.com/2018/04/30/bui…
2/ Our earliest medicines were discovered in nature; later, we learned to use tools like chemistry to develop our own novel molecules; and when we couldn’t synthesize complex proteins ourselves (like insulin), we harnessed biotechnology to coax bacteria to produce them for us
3/ But the frontier of medicine is moving beyond chemicals and proteins; we’re increasingly able to program living things like cells, genes and mircrobes to serve as therapies