Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for The Messenger by Peter Loftus - Available

The Messenger

Moderna, the Vaccine, and the Business Gamble That Changed the World

by Peter Loftus
Mike Lenz
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
The story of the biotech unicorn in the right place, at the right time, with the right technology.

At the start of 2020, Moderna was a waning biotech unicorn, still years away from delivering its first product despite a decade of development of a potentially breakthrough innovation: using RNA to combat disease. Investors were getting antsy or, worse, skeptical.
Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, and Moderna became a central player in a global drama—a David to pharma's Goliaths—turning its technology toward breaking the global grip of the terrible disease. By year's end, as the outbreak was at its worst, Moderna delivered one of the world's first Covid-19 vaccines, with a stunningly high rate of protection. The achievement not only offered the world a way out of a crippling pandemic but also validated Moderna's gene-based technology, transforming the company into a global industry power, swelling its market value on its prospects for new drugs and vaccines for years to come. Biotech, and the venture capital community that fuels it, will never be the same.
Wall Street Journal reporter Peter Loftus, part of a Pulitzer Prize-finalist reporting team and twenty-five-year veteran reporter in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, brings the inside story of how Moderna went all in on a single revolutionary idea; of quiet research with unknown consequence; of the evolution of a cutting-edge American innovation, industry, and economy—decades in the making—that led to one of the great gambles in business history.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 26, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781663718815
      • File size: 302474 KB
      • Duration: 10:30:09

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 6, 2022
      Wall Street Journal reporter Loftus charts in his captivating debut Moderna’s spectacular rise from a small biotech company with “no products no profits” in 2018 to a key player in the race for a Covid-19 vaccine. Moderna’s success, Loftus writes, was “as improbable as it was miraculous” and due to the company’s gamble on using messenger RNA in its vaccine, as regulators had never approved its use as a drug. The vaccine failing or the virus “fizzl away like past outbreaks,” he posits, would’ve been a costly misstep for the company. Instead, the company became “a household name... on track to book more than $7 billion in profit for the first nine months of 2021.” Interviewing more than 150 insiders, including CEO Stéphane Bancel, Loftus pulls back the curtain on the vaccine development process as the pandemic raged: there were threatened patent fights, political hurdles, and complex logistical challenges in trialing and distributing the vaccine to millions of people. Loftus achieves no small feat with his sharp reporting: it’s gripping from page one, despite the fact that most readers already know the outcome. This is a great look at the business of pandemic medicine. Agent: Eric Lupfer, Fletcher & Co.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading
Check Out What People Are Checking Out Right Now