From alleged hackers with China links to the resignation of a board member, the curious goings-on at Moderna Inc seem to be attracting as much attention as its Covid-19 vaccine candidate.

Moderna was the first off-the-block to start human trials on its Covid-19 vaccine candidate in mid-March. Presently it is among the forerunners in doing advanced or late-stage human trials on its vaccine candidate.

Late last week, Moderna Inc said that Elizabeth (Betsy) Nabel had resigned from its board of directors. Nabel is the President of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, one of the 89 clinical trial sites in the Phase 3 trial of mRNA-1273, Moderna’s vaccine candidate against Covid-19.

“In the context of the start of the 30,000 participant Phase 3 trial for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s final preparation as a site for enrolling up to 300-500 trial participants, we have accepted Betsy’s resignation out of an abundance of caution to avoid any potential of even apparent conflict of interest on her part or Moderna’s part,” Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder and Chairman of Moderna and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, clarified in a statement.

But Moderna has never had a dull moment ever since it’s been on the path to develop a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

The biotech company drew much attention and flak when itsstock price shot up over 20 per cent after early vaccine trial results were made public. Since then, foreign media have reported instances of top executives selling their stock in the company. And though the company had maintained in the mediareports that the executives continue to be invested in the company, the view on the development has been ambivalent regarding the reasons behind this. And they veered from action triggered when scientific milestones are achieved in developing the vaccine to encashing before any negative news possibly emerged on the vaccine candidate.

Vaccine development project

Foreign news agency Reuters also reported “differences of opinion” between company officials and government experts on the vaccine development project.

And if all of this was not enough action involving the company, reports last week also alleged that hackers with Chinese links had targeted the company to possibly source vaccine data. China also has its own vaccine candidates that are reported to be in advanced trial stages of development. But Moderna nevertheless found itself in the ongoing crossfire between the US and Chinese governments.

Responding to a query on the alleged Chinese hackers, US’ infectious diseases veteran, Dr Anthony Fauci, said in a testimony at a US Congressional hearing last Friday that hackers did not have to target the company as details of the vaccine trial results would be available when it gets published in a scientific journal. Fauci is Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that funds Moderna’s Covid-vaccine development.

While there will be no let-up in the interest in vaccine companies and the progress they make on a possible Covid vaccine, Moderna will be closely tracked by industry and healthcare watchers for reasons more than just how its vaccine fares in the last leg of the human trial.

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