Moderna begins clinical trial of HIV vaccine developed using mRNA

Moderna begins clinical trial of HIV vaccine developed using same mRNA technology used as base of COVID-19 jab

  • Moderna has injected the first participant for its Phase I clinical trials of its mRNA based HIV vaccine
  • An HIV vaccine has long been sought after by experts and this jab proving successful could help eradicate the devastating virus
  • Moderna is making heavy investment into mRNA vaccine technology after the success of the COVID-19 vaccine
  • The company is projecting $19 billion in vaccine sales this year after earning $17 billion selling the shots in 2021 

Moderna has begun Phase I clinical trials of an HIV vaccine that uses the same mRNA technology made famous by the COVID-19 vaccines.

The company is hoping to parlay the massive success of its COVID-19 vaccine into more products, including what could potentially be a breakthrough vaccine.

There currently is no available vaccine for HIV, and while there are effective treatments that can keep the virus under control and prevent an infected person from developing AIDS, there are no cures for infection either.

Messenger RNA, often referred to as mRNA, was an underutilized technology for decades before its rise to prominence with German based BioNTech and Moderna both used it to develop the breakthrough COVID-19 vaccines in 2020.

Now, Moderna is hoping to expand use of mRNA into a variety of vaccine products.

Moderna is starting trials for an mRNA based HIV vaccine that builds upon the discoveries made in the development of the company’s COVID-19 jab

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel (pictured) has said that he expects Americans to need a fourth shot of a COVID-19 vaccine soon, which would be another financial windfall for his firm

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel (pictured) has said that he expects Americans to need a fourth shot of a COVID-19 vaccine soon, which would be another financial windfall for his firm

‘Developing a vaccine regimen that induces sustained protective levels of HIV neutralizing antibodies in humans has been difficult to achieve,’ Dr Stephen Hodge, president of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company, said in a statement.

‘At Moderna, we believe that mRNA offers an opportunity to take a fresh approach to this challenge.’

Moderna plans to enroll 100 HIV negative people aged 18 to 55 for the study. The first phase will determine dosages for the jab and whether a person will respond well to it. 

It will also determine whether the shot is able to deliver the body antigens that are believed to be effective at fighting HIV.

The company announced that the first of the participants has received a dose of the shot. 

If successful, an HIV vaccine would be a major shift in modern medicine, and the overall fight against the devastating virus.

Scientists worldwide have been searching for an HIV vaccine candidate for decades since the virus’s discovery to help fight the disease that is responsible for around one million deaths every year.

Moderna approved a $926 MILLION golden parachute for its CEO at the end of 2021 

Stephane Bancel’s ‘change-in-control’ package was approved at the end of last year by the Massachusetts-based company’s board of directors, CNBC reported.

Most of the golden parachute – $922.5 million, to be exact – is in the form of stock, which has yo-yoed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rest includes a cash payment of $1.5 million and a bonus of $2.5 million.

Bancel, 49, who is already worth a reported $4.3 billion, would only get the money if the company is sold or merged and he loses his job in the process.

Last year, he earned a combined $18.2 million, a 41 percent increase from 2020.

The French-born executive’s last known address is a three-bedroom, 1,537-square-foot apartment in Boston worth an estimated $1.2 million, according to Zillow.

Things have changed a lot for Moderna since the start of the pandemic in early 2020. It went from losing $747 million that year to making $12.2 billion in 2021, largely from sales of its two-dose vaccine, its only commercially available product.

This may be the most ambitious of Moderna’s potential mRNA vaccine product line it plans to make available in the coming years.

Moderna is also planning an RSV vaccine, flu shot and even potential cancer treatments using the breakthrough technology.

There is also, of course, the COVID-19 vaccine that has made the company a household name in much of the world, and been a financial boon as well.

It posted $17.7 billion in revenue from vaccine sales alone in 2021, the first full year of the jab’s availability. The company projects that figure will be upwards of $19 billion this year.

Stephane Bancel, CEO of the firm, also predicts that a fourth dose of his company’s vaccine will be needed be Americans ahead of a fall Covid surge, which would increase revenue projections even more.

The development of this technology has not gone without hitch for the company, though.

Moderna is facing two lawsuits over improper accreditation and licensing during the development and rollout process of the shots.

First, the company was sued by the National Institutes of Health for some of the agency’s scientists to be listed as co-inventors of the shot.

If the NIH wins, then the federal government could collect royalties of vaccine sales and even license it to other manufacturers.

Two smaller Vancouver, Canada-based, firms are suing Moderna as well, claiming the technology used to deliver the vaccine into the body belonged to them and was used without permission.

Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine has been administered 209 million times to fully vaccinate 75 million people and boost 41 million others since it first became available in late 2020. 

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