RFK Jr.'s hostility toward mRNA could jeopardize more than just vaccines
'Investors are saying, 'We're not in the business of investing in mRNA technologies because the White House is antagonistic toward it,' said Kagan, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and researcher at Boston Children's Hospital.
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Kennedy's decision to cancel
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Dr. Elias Sayour, a pediatric oncologist at University of Florida Health, has developed an experimental therapeutic mRNA vaccine to attack a variety of cancers, including glioblastoma, the most deadly brain tumor.
Sayour said Kennedy's criticism of mRNA vaccines could hinder efforts by a privately held University of Florida spinout, iOncologi, which licensed the technology, to raise money to advance the treatment.
The situation is ironic, he said, because Operation Warp Speed, the public-private partnership that accelerated development of COVID vaccines, was a remarkable achievement of the first Trump administration.
President Donald Trump speaks during an Operation Warp Speed vaccine summit in December 2020.
Evan Vucci/Associated Press
'I think Donald Trump should win the Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed,' Sayour said. 'I wish there was a doubling down on how amazing this technology is based on what the country has already been able to achieve.'
Perhaps no company has more at stake with the administration's increasing skepticism toward mRNA technology than Moderna. It developed one of two mRNA vaccines authorized for emergency use against COVID in 2020 by the Food and Drug Administration. (Pfizer's was the first.)
But in May, the government canceled a
Moderna's entire business model revolves around mRNA, and not just to protect against infections. The company currently has a pipeline of
Among the most promising is a
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A mid-stage trial produced encouraging results for the experimental treatment, which would be combined with Merck's cancer drug Keytruda.
If the medicine wins FDA approval, the partners hope to bring it to market in 2027, and it has the potential to be a blockbuster, said Myles Minter, an analyst at William Blair.
A Moderna spokesperson said the company had no comment on whether the government's cancellation of 22 mRNA vaccine contracts last week had implications for the biotech's experimental medicines that use the same technology.
But Melissa J. Moore, a former top scientist at Moderna, said she was appalled by Kennedy's action and feared it could affect decisions by the FDA on whether to approve mRNA treatments.
'In this highly politicized environment, yes, I'm very concerned about that,' said Moore, who left Moderna in 2023, cofounded two companies that use mRNA, and sits on the board of three companies that work with the technology. 'This war against mRNA, I just don't understand it.'
A vial of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine rests on a table at an inoculation station in Jackson, Miss., on July 19, 2022.
Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press
The molecule mRNA is present in every cell of every living organism. When used in a vaccine, it teaches cells how to make a protein — or even just part of a protein — that stimulates an immune response inside our bodies.
That response generates antibodies that protect us from getting sick from a particular germ in the future — or at least from getting as sick as we might have if we weren't vaccinated.
Traditionally, it took years for drug companies to develop vaccines, which had long used inactivated or weakened viruses. Before the pandemic, the fastest vaccine to go from development to deployment was the mumps shot in the 1960s, which took about four years.
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mRNA dramatically sped up the process, enabling scientists to create a vaccine tailored to the genetic sequence of a virus.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were cleared for emergency use less than a year after scientists sequenced the COVID virus, a record achievement.
Despite how remarkably well mRNA vaccines performed during the pandemic, the shots encountered resistance from many Americans who feared or misunderstood the technology.
Among the common misconceptions: The shots were cleared too quickly to be safe (research on mRNA shots actually began decades earlier); they would change people's DNA (mRNA never enters the nucleus of cells, where DNA resides); they were dangerous (serious side effects have been very rare and treatable).
Kennedy, who falsely asserted mRNA shots weren't effective against COVID, has a long history of claiming that vaccines are dangerous in spite of overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. He falsely said in 2021 that the COVID shot was 'the deadliest vaccine ever made.'
On Aug. 5, when he announced the cancellation of mRNA vaccine investments, he said data show that 'these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu.'
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said Kennedy's claim was false. The goal of vaccines is not necessarily to prevent infections, but rather to prevent serious illnesses and keep people out of hospitals.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at the White House on July 30.
ERIC LEE/NYT
'I don't think RFK Jr. understands the goal of these vaccines,' said Offit. 'Maybe he didn't go to his viral immunology class at UVA Law School.'
If any company should be worried about the demonization of mRNA, it would be Moderna. The 15-year-old firm badly needs a sales boost to offset the decline of its COVID vaccine business.
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The company's share price, which peaked at $484 in 2021, is now trading at about $26, roughly what it was before the pandemic.
Robert Langer, the MIT biomedical engineering professor and prolific inventor who cofounded Moderna, said he remains optimistic about the company's future, particularly
after the encouraging results of the mid-stage trial of its melanoma treatment.
Moore, the former Moderna scientist, said that even if mRNA has become a dirty word in the Trump administration, Moderna markets its products worldwide. Other countries, she added, are welcoming mRNA research as US companies move clinical trials to Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, and other places.
'mRNA medicines are here to stay,' Moore said. 'The US established a lead in this area, and with the current political environment, we're going to lose that lead, and it's really a shame.'
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at
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