> thats when moderna  which had just 25 employees  signed a staggering $240 million partnership with uk pharmaceutical giant astrazeneca. it was the most money pharma had ever spent on drugs that had not yet been tested in humans. > from the start, moderna heralded its ability to produce proteins within cells, which could open up a world of therapeutic targets unreachable by conventional drugs. the most revolutionary treatments, which could challenge the multibillion-dollar market for protein therapy, would involve repeated doses of mrna over many years, so a patients body continued to produce proteins to keep disease at bay. > but modernas first human trials arent so ambitious, focusing instead on the crowded field of vaccines, where the company has only been working since 2014. > first are the two vaccine trials for undisclosed infectious diseases. coming next is a one-time treatment for heart failure, developed in partnership with astrazeneca, followed by another experimental vaccine, for zika virus > delivery  actually getting rna into cells  has long bedeviled the whole field. on their own, rna molecules have a hard time reaching their targets. they work better if theyre wrapped up in a delivery mechanism, such as nanoparticles made of lipids. but those nanoparticles can lead to dangerous side effects, especially if a patient has to take repeated doses over months or years. > novartis abandoned the related realm of rna interference over concerns about toxicity, as did merck and roche. > moderna said it prioritized vaccines because they presented the fastest path to human trials, not because of setbacks with other projects. the notion that [moderna] ran into difficulties isnt borne in reality, said afeyan. > but this is where modernas secrecy comes into play: until theres published data, only the company and its partners know what the data show. everyone outside is left guessing cont
United States