June 16 (Reuters) – Moderna appointed a new chief commercial officer and widened its president’s role to oversee certain franchises, the vaccine maker said on Tuesday, as it prepares for potential product launches over the next couple of years.
Here are some details:
• Ester Banque, who was most recently the president of U.S. operations at animal health company Zoetis, has been appointed as the chief commercial officer of Moderna.
• Stephen Hoge, president of Moderna, will overlook the divisions handling infectious disease, intismeran and rare disease franchises.
• Intismeran is Moderna’s lead mRNA-based cancer vaccine developed in collaboration with Merck.
• Moderna expects important clinical milestones this year, including potential pivotal trial results for intismeran and a treatment for propionic acidemia — a rare inherited disorder that prevents the body from properly breaking down certain proteins and fats.
• Positive results could support the possible launch of the company’s first products in oncology and rare diseases, it said.
• Moderna is anticipating the potential launch of up to three new products in 2027 and 2028, including flu plus COVID combination, seasonal flu and norovirus vaccines.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to make a decision on Moderna’s flu vaccine mFlusiva, by August 5.
• The health regulator is set to hold a meeting of outside experts on June 18 to review the experimental flu shot.
(Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
