Big Idea, Big Money, Big Skepticism: The Long Run Podcast With Stephane Bancel

Today’s guest on The Long Run is Stephane Bancel.

He’s the CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based Moderna Therapeutics.

The company, and the man at the helm, are somewhat controversial. Google Bancel’s name, and the ‘People Also Search For’ window shows famous entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk…and Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos infamy.

Stephane Bancel, CEO, Moderna Therapeutics

Each situation for those entrepreneurs is different, and comparisons break down pretty quickly, but a few common themes do stand out. Big technology ideas, big investment, lofty rhetoric, and a penchant for keeping a lot of crucial technology details secret.

The idea at Moderna is to turn messenger RNA molecules into drugs themselves. Inject the mRNA code, allow it to get inside cells to produce full-functioning proteins, and voila, as Bancel likes to say, it’s sorta like software code that enables humans to become into their own protein drug factories. Dazzling, right?

Tantalizing as the concept is, it has long been dismissed as sci-fi. mRNA, for starters, can’t get into cells and make fully functioning proteins without triggering autoimmune reactions, to raise one common objection. Yet Moderna has been able to convince enough investors and partners to throw $2 billion behind its efforts over the last eight years to create this new modality of treatment. Most of the money arrived before Moderna had any data in humans. For years, it divulged little about its technology or its preclinical data at scientific conferences. That naturally bred suspicion, and – truth be told – envy.

In this episode, I talk a lot with Bancel about his life, career arc, and influences that shape the way he thinks at Moderna. In the latter part of the show, we talk about some of the particular ups and downs and lessons learned at the company. This episode was recorded at the recent JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. I’ll also say he has a French accent, and I occasionally misunderstand a word he says here or there, but I don’t think you’ll have any trouble listening.

Now, listen to Stephane Bancel on The Long Run.