Moderna Inc. (MRNA, Financial) announced on Friday that it is expanding its mRNA pipeline with three new development programs.
The announcement reflects the commitment on the part of the biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines to expanding its portfolio by building on its experience with Spikevax, its Covid-19 vaccine.
The development programs announced are:
- mRNA-1608, a vaccine candidate against Herpes simplex virus (HSV).
- mRNA-1468, a vaccine candidate against varicella-zoster virus (VZV) to reduce the rate of herpes zoster (shingles).
- mRNA-4359, a new checkpoint cancer vaccine.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna now has five vaccine candidates against latent viruses in development, including against cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), HSV and VZV, the company said.
"We are pleased to announce these new development programs, which reflect the continued productivity of our platform and the potential of our mRNA technology to impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people," said Stephane Bancel, the CEO of Moderna, in a statement. "We are committed to addressing latent viruses with the goal of preventing the lifelong medical conditions that they cause with our mRNA vaccine programs. With our HSV and VZV vaccine candidates, we also hope to improve the quality of life for those with symptomatic disease. With our new checkpoint cancer vaccine, we look forward to exploring if we can induce T cells specific to PD-L1 and IDO1 through vaccination. Our research teams are working on additional mRNA candidates, which we look forward to sharing in the future."
In early 2020, “as the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 swiftly spread across the world triggering a global pandemic, mRNA vaccine researchers kicked into gear,” reported New Atlas. “Decades of work had luckily positioned this new technology as ready for a move into the big time and by the end of the year mRNA Covid-19 vaccines were demonstrating extraordinary safety and efficacy.”
Moderna’s stock closed at $145.74 on Friday, down 0.42%, or 62 cents per share, following the news. After close, it dropped to $145.00.
Moderna's herpes simplex virus (HSV) vaccine candidate (mRNA-1608) is a vaccine candidate against HSV-2 disease. Moderna expects that an HSV-2 vaccine could provide cross-protection against HSV-1. With mRNA-1608, the company aims to induce strong antibody response with neutralizing and effector functionality combined with cell-mediated immunity. There is currently no vaccine approved against HSV.
Moderna's varicella-zoster virus (VZV) vaccine candidate (mRNA-1468) is designed to express varicella-zoster virus (VZV) glycoprotein E (gE) to reduce the rate of shingles (herpes zoster). Shingles occurs in one of three adults in their lifetime, and incidence dramatically increases at approximately 50 years of age, the company said. Declining immunity in older adults decreases immunity against VZV, allowing reactivation of the virus from latently infected neurons, causing painful and itchy lesions. Moderna has published preclinical data on an mRNA vaccine encoding the VZV gE antigen.
Moderna's new checkpoint cancer vaccine candidate (mRNA-4359) expresses Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) antigens. Moderna designed mRNA-4359 with the goal of stimulating effector T-cells that target and kill suppressive immune and tumor cells that express target antigens. Moderna said in its announcement that it is planning to explore initial indications for advanced or metastatic cutaneous melanoma and non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).
