NEW YORK — Moderna (MRNA) is gathering investors here Thursday to showcase scientific evidence demonstrating that injections of the company’s custom-built messenger RNA are capable of turning the body’s own cells into medicine-making factories.
The new data being presented from two programs targeting cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus are preliminary, but they still go further than ever before to prove Moderna’s mRNA technology can create effective drugs and vaccines. However, heart-related side effects seen in a single chikungunya study participant also raise questions about the safety of its mRNA-based medicines.
Up to this point, Moderna has been most successful — perhaps infamous — for raising billions of dollars from private investors, and then pushing through the largest initial public offering in biotech history. But Moderna’s stock price has slumped 30% since the $600 million IPO last December, wiping out around $2 billion in market value.
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