Moderna CEO downplays vaccine timeline pressure: 'We don't want to be the first, we want to be the best'

Yahoo ^ | 09/18/2020 | Anjalee Khemlani, Senior Reporter

[SeekAndFind]

As the scientific race for an effective coronavirus vaccine becomes embroiled in controversy, Moderna (MRNA) CEO Stéphane Bancel dismissed suggestions about political pressure, telling Yahoo Finance in an interview that his company was not under the gun from the government.

President Donald Trump has insisted the U.S. will approve a vaccine by Election Day, even as his top health officials have contradicted him. In the U.S., Moderna and Pfizer (PFE) are considered the two frontrunners, and the latter has said it can expect the first safety readout by the end of October.

Yet unlike Pfizer, Moderna, has relied on government funding from the Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” initiative. Despite the nearly $1 billion in federal funding, and the urgency to find workable treatments as infections rise worldwide, Bancel insisted the company is not being pressured — and never has been.

“We have had, from no governments, any pressure to go faster,” Bancel told “The Final Round” on Thursday.

In fact, Moderna is riding a wave of momentum around its company’s vaccine candidate, and hopes to translate that into ongoing enthusiasm about the mRNA technology, the CEO added.

Trump’s aggressive expectations of having a vaccine by Election Day have been tempered by scientists and his own public health officials. During Moderna’s investor day on Thursday, chief medical officer Tal Zaks said that getting regulatory approval by November is "a question of getting lucky.”

Despite being slightly behind Pfizer in its development — even as both began clinical trials on the same day— Moderna’s chief insisted he’s not concerned about meeting anyone’s timeline.

“We’re not solving to be the first vaccine, we want to have the best vaccine,” Bancel told Yahoo Finance.

[SeekAndFind]

“I would rather be two weeks behind the first vaccine and have the best vaccine, plus from a business standpoint and potential turnover it will have no impact,” Bancel added.

Regardless of the outcome, the company has already benefitted from the race by being closer to commercialization of a product that it was at the start of the year.

A vaccine could “accelerate the company's transition to a commercial company by 3-4 years,” including a limited emergency use authorization this year and a full license for the product by 2021, Bancel said.

[Dr. Sivana]

I believe that is one of the vaccine candidates that uses aborted baby cell lines.

[faucetman]

“’We don’t want to be the first, we want to be the best’”

Translation:

“We’re NOT gonna be first”.

[gas_dr]

I tend to agree — this is a statement that says “We are getting our ass kicked”

[1Old Pro]

Moderna, Inc. 200 Technology Square Cambridge, MA 02139

Right in the heart of Leftist MA. Pfizer is a better company.

[2aProtectsTheRest]

Moderna did use fetal stem cells in their R&D for this vaccine candidate. Important to note that nobody uses fetal stem cells as part of production, so they’re not IN the vaccine. (I’ve seen this claim made elsewhere before and it’s false.) They’re used mostly to better understand how a pathogen infects a cell, how it replicates, and how that pathogen is affected by various compounds. They’re used because they’re easier, cheaper, and faster than other methods, but other methods CAN replace them, and ultimately should.

Vaccine candidates for COVID-19 that are being developed by Novavax, Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and Sinovac, are using ethically-derived cell lines. (https://www.pop.org/which-covid-19-vaccines-are-being-developed-with-fetal-cell-lines-derived-from-aborted-babies/)