Cap­tured in a harsh spot­light, biotech uni­corn Mod­er­na names Melis­sa Moore as its new CSO

As Mod­er­na Ther­a­peu­tics drew a harsh re­view from Stat, por­trayed as a com­pa­ny in tur­moil with an of­ten em­bit­tered staff, the biotech uni­corn named Howard Hugh­es in­ves­ti­ga­tor and Uni­ver­si­ty of Mass­a­chu­setts Med­ical School Pro­fes­sor Melis­sa J. Moore as its new CSO, now in com­mand of its full mR­NA de­vel­op­ment plat­form.

Moore was plucked from the com­pa­ny’s sci­en­tif­ic ad­vi­so­ry group at a cru­cial stage in Mod­er­na’s de­vel­op­ment. The biotech has raised $1.9 bil­lion so far — a huge amount by biotech stan­dards — es­tab­lish­ing a broad rang­ing pre­clin­i­cal ef­fort to use pa­tient cells as drug fac­to­ries. That ef­fort has now led to 11 de­vel­op­ment pro­grams and a slate of new ther­a­pies wait­ing to en­ter the clin­ic.

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