The Emergence Of A New Medicinal Platform: mRNA

In the first of a three-part series on the evolution of mRNA manufacturing, this article looks back to before the pandemic, when dogged mRNA researchers and entrepreneurs labored in obscurity pursuing the dream of revolutionizing healthcare by commandeering the body’s own protein building process to generate quicker, cheaper vaccines and therapeutics. Then the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines stunned the world.    

Butterfly
• Source: Shutterstock

The molecules that deliver work orders to cellular protein factories may have been discovered in 1961, but it was not until they were harnessed over 60 years later to protect billions of people from a global pandemic that mRNA became an overnight sensation.

Not only were the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer Inc./BioNTech SE and Moderna, Inc. found safe and highly efficacious, the new technology for manufacturing them demonstrated...

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