The Blubber

Per Forbes

Moderna is teaming up with IBM to bring new tech to mRNA vaccine technology. The partnership attempts to explore using artificial intelligence and quantum computing in its future medicines.

A recent company announcement included the statements of Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel regarding their excitement regarding the partnership. The statement included their goals and what they hope to achieve from the partnership.

Bancel: "We are aiming for breakthrough advances with quantum computing, so we are investing now in building a quantum-ready workforce, to be fully prepared to harness the power of this technology."

IBM senior VP and director Dr. Dario Gil shared how artificial intelligence was capable of helping scientists understand the behavior of molecules. Moderna highlights the focus of the collaboration, which would be optimizing its lipid nanoparticles.

Dr. Dario Gil: "Moderna will be able to take advantage of our multi-year research efforts in generative AI for therapeutics that can allow scientists to better understand how molecules behave and may facilitate creating entirely new ones."

Moderna will reportedly participate in the "IBM Quantum Accelerator program and the IBM Quantum Network" as they attempt to use quantum technologies to explore life sciences.

At the start of 2023, it was reported that Moderna was considering pricing its new Covid-19 vaccines at $110 to $130. This would be a massive increase compared to its original vaccine cost of $15 to $16 per dose in earlier supply contracts.

After the consideration, Moderna assured that its COVID vaccine would still be free for all consumers, even those not insured. For the full year of 2022, Moderna reported around $18.4 billion in Covid-19 vaccine sales.

Previously, Moderna had estimated a commercial price estimation of $64 to $100 a shot.

In October 2022, Pfizer had also planned to increase its COVID vaccine price to the same price range of $110 to $130 per dose.

See flow at unusualwhales.com/flow.

Other News:

• Moderna, MRNA, considers price of $110-$130 for covid-19 vaccine
• Moderna, MRNA, says its COVID vaccine will remain free for all consumers, even those uninsured.

Resources:

Forbes

Moderna