We spent 10 years and $2.5 billion on mRNA before we had a single approved product. Every board meeting, someone asked: when does this pay off? Then COVID happened and it paid off in 11 months.
We designed the COVID vaccine in two days. Two days. January 11, China published the genome. January 13, we had the sequence locked. Everything after that was testing and manufacturing.
I told my board in 2017 that mRNA could become a universal vaccine platform. They looked at me like I was insane. Now we have vaccines for COVID, RSV, flu, and cancer in the pipeline. Who's insane now?
Pfizer used BioNTech's technology. We built ours from scratch. Our own lipid nanoparticles, our own manufacturing, our own everything. That's why we own it all. That's why the margins are 90%.
Moderna was the most hated biotech stock before COVID. No revenue. No products. Billions in losses. Short sellers loved us. Then we made the vaccine that ended the pandemic and became a $100 billion company.