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He estimated a timeline of “three to five years” for the new hybrid product, and likened the development of the lifesaving jab to a smartphone.
“When you first get an iPhone, you don’t get an amazing camera, but you get a lot of stuff,” he said.
Bansel believes the Covid-19 pandemic, which has helped the company accumulate tens of billions of dollars in revenue and generate business in more than 70 markets worldwide, could end as soon as this year.
That doesn’t mean the virus is going anywhere, he said.
“I think we are moving slowly – if not in some countries – to a world where all tools are available and everyone can make their own decisions based on risk tolerance,” he explained, believing that many people will choose. To “live with the virus” just like you do with the flu.
However, the approach will continue to vary significantly in countries such as those with weakened immune systems or countries such as Japan where mask-wearing was common even before the outbreak, he said.
And “there’s always a 20% chance that we’ll find a really nasty variant with lots of mutations that drives a very severe disease,” he added.
The next big thing
Still, Moderia is determined not to be a one-hit wonder.
The company has more than 40 products in development and is planning for life beyond Covid-19, Bansel said.
In addition to the updated annual push, it continues to develop a personalized cancer vaccine, for which new clinical data is due later this year. Bansel said that if all goes well, the product could be approved in approximately two years.
And Moderna is looking to find competitors overseas.
Earlier this year, it announced a push into 10 Asian and European markets, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark and the Netherlands. The investments will cost “tens of millions of dollars” and include hundreds of new hires, Bansel said.
Bansel said the new facility will be critical to helping his products adapt to the different types of diseases that are emerging around the world.
As the world grapples with its first outbreak of Covid-19, Moderia is one of a handful of large manufacturers rushing to develop their vaccines, cutting timelines from years to months. The stock is up 434 percent in 2020 and 143 percent in the past year.
The reverse caused huge losses to the company, which bought new machines to fulfill the orders, and more importantly, the Covid vaccines were thrown into the garbage, Bansel said.
“We killed the vaccine,” he said. “It was really heartbreaking.”
The chief executive said he was not worried about such demand slipping in developed countries, in part because governments have pledged to use vaccines by the end of this year to avoid re-introducing economic lockdowns.
But “on the low-income side, yes, I’m worried,” he said.
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