As it prepares to launch up to three new products from 2027 through 2028, Moderna is adjusting its way of doing business.
The company has hired Ester Banque to become its chief commercial officer and has elevated the role of president Stephen Hoge, M.D., who will now oversee each of the company’s three divisions: commercial, manufacturing and R&D.
In his new role, Hoge will help “ensure strategic alignment across the business, strengthen enterprise execution, and accelerate Moderna's ability to deliver innovative medicines to patients around the world,” the company said in a release Tuesday.
The changes are effective immediately. Banque, who brings 25 years of experience from Novartis and four years from Bristol Myers Squibb, will lead the buildout of Moderna’s commercial organization and guide the execution of its product launches.
In the next two years, the company expects to begin commercializing a combination flu and COVID shot, along with vaccines for seasonal flu and norovirus, assuming approvals come through. Also in late-stage development are Merck-partnered mRNA-4157, a personalized neoantigen cancer therapy, and three rare disease candidates.
“As we execute on our strategic plan and prepare to manage three commercial franchises spanning infectious diseases, intismeran and rare diseases, it is critical that we continue to strengthen our operating model,” Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO, said in a release, referring to mRNA-4157 by its generic name.
Moderna has not had a clearly-defined CCO since Arpa Garay stepped down at the end of 2023. While Hoge took responsibility for pipeline commercial strategy and medical affairs, Bancel assumed sales and marketing duties.
Banque started at Novartis as a sales rep in 1993 and finished her second term there as the general manager of Novartis Oncology-Germany. At Bristol Myers Squibb, she headed up the pharma's intercontinental commercial group and served as general manager of its U.S. hematology and cell therapy unit, guiding the launches of five new products.
Most recently, Banque led U.S. operations at Zoetis, a New Jersey-based animal health company.
“I am proud to join Moderna at such an exciting time in the company's journey,” Banque said in a statement. “Throughout my career, I have been driven by a passion for helping bring innovative medicines to patients, and I have long admired what Moderna has accomplished in advancing a new class of medicines through its mRNA platform.”
Moderna was a pandemic success story, emerging on the world stage with the approval of its mRNA COVID vaccine. But the company has struggled to take full advantage of the $37.7 billion revenue that it generated from 2021 to 2022. Last year, the company reported sales of $1.9 billion and a net loss of $2.8 billion.