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| Moderna Chairman Noubar Afeyan |
The FDA has been harping at the industry to make sure it gets its manufacturing right and Moderna Therapeutics, which is developing a way to enable the in vivo production of therapeutic proteins, intends to make sure it does. The Cambridge, MA-based company is setting up a technology advisory board to give it advice on how to build state-of-the-art Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) manufacturing. The company says it will need facilities to make high-quality mRNA active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for its own clinical programs as well as for partners AstraZeneca ($AZN), Alexion Pharmaceuticals ($ALXN) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In addition to Noubar Afeyan, co-founder and chairman of Moderna and himself a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering from M.I.T, the board includes 6 other noted folks. They include a Nobel winner from Harvard and former executives of companies including Merck ($MRK), Genzyme, Genentech and Eli Lilly ($LLY). Moderna's messenger RNA therapies aim to turn the body's own cells into makers of protein drugs and reduce the cost of developing protein therapies in the process. Announcement | More