- Moderna plans to provide coronavirus, influenza, and other common respiratory viruses single-dose annual booster.
- CEO Stéphane Bancel predicts new combination product will be ready in “three to five years”.
- The company is also working on a potential monkeypox vaccine, which is still in the lab.
Put an end to getting two or three Covid shots per year. Within the next five years, Moderna plans to provide a coronavirus, influenza, and other common respiratory viruses single-dose annual booster.
According to CEO Stéphane Bancel in an interview with a worldwide news website on Wednesday, Moderna will need to maintain improving the vaccinations that made Covid-19 a household name while working to make them more convenient for consumers.
He predicted that the new combination product will be ready in “three to five years” and compared the development of the life-saving jab to that of a smartphone.
When you first get an iPhone, “you don’t get the wonderful camera, amazing everything, but you get a lot of things,” he remarked.
“Every September, many of us purchase a new iPhone, and you can download updated and new apps. And that’s exactly the same concept—you’ll receive a single dosage of Covid along with protection against the flu and RSV.”
Moderna (MRNA), which had rapid development during the pandemic, is now under pressure to pinpoint its next major market.
Bancel is optimistic that the Covid-19 pandemic, which has enabled the company earn tens of billions of dollars in revenue and do business in more than 70 markets worldwide, will stop this year.
That doesn’t always mean the infection is disappearing, he said.
He added that he thought more people would choose to “live with the virus,” much like they do with the flu, saying, “I think we are slowly moving — if not already in some countries — to a world where all the tools are available, and everybody can make their own decision based on their risk tolerance.”
He agreed that the strategy will continue to differ drastically depending on the situation, such as with immunocompromised individuals or in places like Japan where mask use was widespread even before the pandemic.
And he continued, “There’s always a 20% chance that we acquire a really bad variant that drives really severe disease that has a lot of mutation.”
[embedpost slug=”us-approves-pfizer-and-moderna-vaccines-for-youngest-children-2/”]