Moderna Spins Out mRNA Cancer Drugs Into New Company, Onkaido
Summary
Cambridge, MA-based Moderna, which is developing a new class of messenger RNA molecules as therapies, says it’s investing $20 million to spin out a new company called Onkaido Therapeutics.Stephen Hoge, the senior vice president of corporate development at Moderna, is taking on the added role of CEO at Onkaido.Earlier this week, Cheshire, CT-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALXN) poured $125 million into Moderna for rights to develop mRNAs against rare diseases.Moderna also raised $110 million in private equity financing last year, giving it the biggest war chest of any biotech startup company in the world, by far.And one of Moderna’s key tests last year was to show that it could inject a messenger RNA into animals, get the molecule inside cells, and enable the cellular machinery to churn out fully functional therapeutic antibodies.