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And Now for Moderna’s Next Act...

Hi, it's Robert. When I first started reporting on Covid-19 in early 2020, I told my colleagues to keep an eye on a little-known startup called Moderna. Now the company is a household name with a $100 billion market cap, and its Covid vaccine may have $19 billion in sales this year. So what comes next?

I spent the last few months exploring that question and, as you'll see in this week's Bloomberg Businessweek cover story, I found that the company's ambitions are nothing short of breathtaking. Moderna has, or will soon have, vaccines in trials for no fewer than 10 different viruses, including influenza, HIV, and Zika. And if that's not enough, it's also working on cancer, rare genetic diseases, and even heart disease.

During my visit to the company's Cambridge, Mass., headquarters, CEO Stéphane Bancel told me he expects mRNA will eventually make designing drugs and vaccines easier—and more like creating software. If Bancel can pull it off, the medical implications would be huge, as would the financial payoff for his company. But it's not going to be easy. Now that mRNA vaccines have succeeded so spectacularly, every major player is trying to catch up. And as it expands beyond Covid, Moderna will have to prove just what mRNA is capable of. Click here to read my story, or listen here. —Robert Langreth

Inside the Moderna manufacturing facilities in Norwood, Mass.

Photographer: Philip Keith for Bloomberg Businessweek

 

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