Beyond the vaccine race

The firm he kickstarted a decade ago is racing to immunise the world against Covid-19. Now, Robert Langer, co-founder of Moderna, is shaping the next generation of innovative medical solutions.

Sharanya Pillai

Published Sat, Jan 30, 2021 · 05:50 AM

Vaccines

FOR scientist-entrepreneur Robert Langer, the miniscule genetic material mRNA belies an immense lesson for innovators: Where there is "great science", keep persisting.

The 72-year-old has found this to be true as a co-founder of Moderna . The Massachusetts-based firm developed an mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 last year - leading the global vaccination effort alongside Pfizer and BioNTech. But this came only after years of scepticism towards mRNA technology.

"What is very exciting is that not only did Moderna do the vaccine quickly, it was also incredibly effective," Dr Langer tells The Business Times (BT) over a video call from Florida. "It's not just promising; it's really a key step to hopefully ending the pandemic. It also opens the doors to a whole host of vaccination programmes."