What diseases can mRNA technology help with?

BioNTech President Helmut Jeggle compares the discovery of successful COVID-19 vaccine trials to a moon landing. Months of hard work and planning are reflected in a single moment of triumph.

The company, a Pfizer partner in the messenger RNA vaccine, is trying to duplicate that moment. Now that its COVID vaccine is set to become this year’s best-selling drug, the company is moving on multiple fronts to develop the next big thing: implementing mRNA technology to treat a range of other diseases.

Moderna, America’s biotechnology of the other successful mRNA vaccine for COVID, is advancing on the same front.

The success of the messenger RNA vaccines against COVID was a validation that the technology could work for at least one type of disease. Now, with expectations high, drug developers must convince investors that their billions in vaccine revenue will not be exceptional.

“Where protein is needed, it can be applied”, dice Derrick Rossi, a Harvard University stem cell biologist who co-founded Moderna. “That could mean 6,000 genetic diseases, oncology, cancer, mutated genes.”.

Cancer treatments, where BioNTech focused on mRNA research before the pandemic, they could arrive in the next two years. Success in terms of COVID is a good sign of the likelihood that mRNA technology will work for cancer, but it’s not guaranteed, says Charlie Fuchs, Roche’s head of oncology and hematology development.

The Swiss pharmaceutical giant is working with BioNTech on personalized mRNA cancer vaccines.

“It is not about prevention, it is about eliminating a substantial tumor burden ”, says the medical director of BioNTech, Ozlem Tureci. “It is not really a foreign protein that is being used as a target. And therefore this is a superior and very different challenge.”.

Beyond cancer, BioNTech and Modern They are in the early stages of autoimmune disease projects. Moderna is also working on a cystic fibrosis treatment, as well as a drug for heart disease, and has a wide range of other potential mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases, from Zika and flu to HIV.

“It must be borne in mind that mRNA is at the center of any biological process”, dice Matthias Kromayer, partner of MIG Capital, one of the first sponsors of BioNTech. “Any gene that is expressed is expressed through mRNA”.