Stéphane Bancel

Moderna Therapeutics is on a roll. Just 4 short years since the biotech firm launched, and without yet advancing a drug into the clinic, the mRNA therapeutics company has already raised nearly US$1 billion. This includes funding from one of the biggest biotech funding rounds ever — $450 million, raised earlier this year — and from partnerships with AstraZeneca, Merck & Co., Alexion and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The company's Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel argues that mRNA therapeutics, which are translated in patients into therapeutic proteins and antibodies, could be game changers for industry. He tells Asher Mullard about the opportunity and remaining scientific overhangs of this scientific platform.