Mod­er­na's flu da­ta of­fer a clear les­son: mR­NA is­n't mag­ic

Last fall, as their Covid-19 vac­cine crossed the fin­ish line, Mod­er­na un­veiled plans to take its new­ly proven mR­NA plat­form and use it to ef­fec­tive­ly change how the world blocks hu­man­i­ty’s most per­sis­tent vi­ral foes.

In ad­di­tion to their pre-ex­ist­ing vac­cine pro­grams, ex­ec­u­tives an­nounced new ones for flu, where vac­cines have chron­i­cal­ly un­der­per­formed, and HIV, which has elud­ed every in­oc­u­la­tion ef­fort over near­ly 40 years. In flu, the oth­er mR­NA vac­cine com­pa­nies — BioN­Tech (with Pfiz­er), Trans­late Bio (un­der Sanofi), and Cure­Vac (with GSK) — all had sim­i­lar am­bi­tions, hop­ing to make shots that were as high as 80% ef­fec­tive.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER