Moderna is making moves to expand its name in the vaccine space beyond its COVID-19 shot Spikevax.
The drugmaker announced promising new data on several experimental treatments Wednesday — including vaccines for the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and norovirus — as well as a next-generation COVID-19 vaccine in the works.
In addition to the clinical data rollout, Moderna announced it struck a development and commercialization funding deal with private equity firm Blackstone Life Sciences to help bolster its flu pipeline.
Under the deal, Blackstone will pay Moderna $750 million to fund its flu portfolio for cumulative commercial milestones and low-single digit royalties.
“Our mRNA platform continues a remarkable track record across our broad vaccine portfolio,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. “With five vaccines in Phase 3, and three more moving toward Phase 3, we have built a very large and diverse portfolio addressing significant unmet medical needs.”
Offering a glimpse into its vaccine pipeline, Moderna highlighted five candidates that target latent infections — which involve viruses present in the body without showing symptoms. Its cytomegalovirus (CMV) vaccine, mRNA-1647, is currently in a Phase 3 trial in women with primary CMV infection.
Moderna is also working on two separate EBV vaccines — mRNA-1189 and mRNA-1195 — which aim to target EBV-associated conditions.
The company also touted its first human Phase 1/2 trial for mRNA-1608, a herplex simplex virus (HSV) vaccine, which will examine safety, immunogenicity and clinical benefit in patients with recurrent HSV-2 genital herpes.
It currently has two norovirus vaccine candidates in development, including one, mRNA-1403, moving toward a Phase 3 trial.
Moderna has also sought to replenish its mRNA vaccine pipeline following a stark decline in COVID-19 product sales.
Still, the biopharma company isn’t turning away from COVID-19 entirely. It emphasized that its mRNA platform can keep tabs on emerging variants and “produce variant-matched vaccines on an accelerated time horizon.”
Its next-generation COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA-1283, managed to achieve a higher immune response against the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 variant as well as the original variant of COVID-19, compared to its current licensed vaccine, in a Phase 3 trial.
Moderna reported a surprise quarterly profit of $217 million in its Q4 2023 earnings report, which was down from $1.4 billion posted in the same quarter a year before but indicated its COVID vaccine had some staying power.
Finally, Moderna announced that its RSV vaccine, mRNA-1345 is currently being investigated in a Phase 2/3 trial dubbed ConquerRSV.
Initial data from the trial has shown that the drug met its primary efficacy endpoints with a vaccine efficacy of 83.7%, and the company has filed for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval based on that data.
