Moderna
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Moderna, Inc. ( ) (founded as ModeRNA Therapeutics, Inc.) is an American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that focuses on RNA therapeutics, primarily mRNA vaccines. These vaccines use a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) to carry instructions for proteins to produce an immune response. The company's name is derived from the terms "modified", "RNA", and "modern". The company's commercial products are the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine sold under the brand names Spikevax and Mnexspike, a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine sold under the brand name Mresvia, and an influenza vaccine sold under the brand name Mflusiva. The company has 44 treatment and vaccine candidates, of which 37 have entered clinical trials. Candidates include possible vaccines for influenza, HIV, Epstein–Barr virus, the Nipah virus, chikungunya, human metapneumovirus, varicella zoster virus, as well as a cytomegalovirus vaccine, a Zika virus vaccine funded by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, and three cancer vaccines. In May 2026, Time ranked Moderna first in their list of the World's Most Impactful Companies.
Moderna, Inc. ( ) (founded as ModeRNA Therapeutics, Inc.) is an American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that focuses on RNA therapeutics, primarily mRNA vaccines. These vaccines use a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) to carry instructions for proteins to produce an immune response. The company's name is derived from the terms "modified", "RNA", and "modern". The company's commercial products are the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine sold under the brand names Spikevax and Mnexspike, a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine sold under the brand name Mresvia, and an influenza vaccine sold under the brand name Mflusiva. The company has 44 treatment and vaccine candidates, of which 37 have entered clinical trials. Candidates include possible vaccines for influenza, HIV, Epstein–Barr virus, the Nipah virus, chikungunya, human metapneumovirus, varicella zoster virus, as well as a cytomegalovirus vaccine, a Zika virus vaccine funded by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, and three cancer vaccines. In May 2026, Time ranked Moderna first in their list of the World's Most Impactful Companies.
History
Moderna was founded in 20101 by Derrick Rossi, Timothy A. Springer, Kenneth R. Chien, Robert S. Langer, and Noubar Afeyan. Stéphane Bancel was appointed as CEO in 2011. Between 2011 and 2017, Moderna raised in venture capital funding. In 2024, Bancel also led marketing for the company during a transition.
COVID-19 vaccine
From 2020 to 2021, Moderna received $955 million from Operation Warp Speed to accelerate development of its COVID-19 vaccine, with $4.9 billion committed in total for producing 300 million vaccine doses. In March 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved clinical trials for the Moderna COVID‑19 vaccine candidate, and in December 2020, the vaccine, mRNA-1273, was issued an emergency use authorization in the United States. In 2022, it gained FDA approval both for the monovalent vaccine, Spikevax, and a bivalent booster. In April 2022, Moderna announced plans to build a $180 million vaccine factory in Montreal, Canada, forming a 10-year partnership with the Government of Canada, Quebec, and McGill University to produce 100 million Spikevax doses annually and expand vaccine research capabilities. The plant is scheduled to supply COVID-19 vaccines in the fall of 2025. In February 2023, the company agreed to pay $400 million to the National Institutes of Health, Dartmouth College, and Scripps Research to settle a dispute over the rights to a chemical technique that was used in the vaccine.
Legal disputes
Arbutus Biopharma filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Moderna in 2022, alleging that Arbutus developed lipid nanoparticles that enclose the Moderna vaccine's mRNA payload. In April 2023, a court affirmed a decision to cancel a patent by Arbutus Biopharma in connection with the dispute. In April 2024, however, the court issued an order that strengthened Arbutus's arguments by interpreting patents at issue in the manner Arbutus had urged. Several legal cases between Moderna and Pfizer and BioNTech in various countries, alleging that the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine violates the patent on Moderna's mRNA vaccine technology, are ongoing. In November 2024, the British pharmaceutical company GSK plc filed a lawsuit against Moderna Inc. in a US federal court in the state of Delaware, seeking unspecified royalties alleging that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and RSV vaccine mResvia infringe on GSK's patents related to messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. According to the complaint, Moderna's use of lipid nanoparticles—crucial for delivering fragile mRNA into the human body—violates several GSK patents covering similar delivery innovations. This lawsuit follows a similar legal action GSK brought against Pfizer and BioNTech earlier in 2024, claiming patent infringement over their mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine.
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Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1379009698 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.