为什么Moderna的首席执行官并不担心其癌症疫苗的折价Moderna首席执行官Stephane Bancel认为，投资者对公司癌症疫苗的看法是错误的。
Here’s why Moderna’s CEO isn’t fazed by its cancer-vaccine selloff Moderna Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel thinks investors are wrong about the company’s cancer vaccine.
过去几天，Moderna股价大幅下跌，原因是投资者发现其癌症疫苗的数据令人失望，尽管研究人员称其为突破性成果。Bancel在《华尔街日报》的一次采访中阐述了自己的看法。
Moderna’s stock fell sharply over the past few days after data emerged about its cancer vaccine that investors found disappointing, though researchers called it breakthrough. Bancel laid out his thoughts in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
黑色素瘤数据 Bancel表示，该疫苗名为intismeran，在黑色素瘤中产生的益处与Keytruda（默克公司的免疫疗法）在成为重磅药物道路上所取得的成效相当。
Melanoma data Bancel said the vaccine, known as intismeran, delivered a similar-size benefit in melanoma that started Keytruda, Merck’s immunotherapy, on its road to becoming a blockbuster drug.
“这是黑色素瘤历史上，任何附加于Keytruda的药物都比Keytruda更好的首次，”他说。
“It’s the first time in melanoma that anything added to Keytruda is better than Keytruda,” he said.
Bancel预计，这些数据——显示人们在接种疫苗两年后的情况——会随着时间推移变得更好。一个更早、规模较小的试验显示，疫苗五年后风险降低的程度更高。
Bancel expects the data—which shows how people are faring two years after getting the vaccine—to look even better over time. An earlier, smaller trial, showed an even greater level of risk reduction five years after the vaccine.
癌症疫苗进入药房 如果将疫苗开发用于更早期的癌症阶段，Bancel表示他设想患者每三周走进一次药房，取走九剂癌症疫苗。
Cancer vaccine at pharmacies If efforts to develop the vaccine for earlier-stage cancers prove out, Bancel said he envisions that patients with, say, early-stage lung cancer could walk into a pharmacy every three weeks for their nine doses of the cancer vaccine.
这将是一个重大变化，因为癌症药物通常通过静脉输液在医院或医疗中心给药，医生在场以应对副作用。
That would be a significant change since cancer drugs are normally given via intravenous drip at hospitals or medical centers, where doctors are on hand in the event of side effects.
“这里的副作用就是疫苗的副作用：你可能明天感到疲倦，或者今晚发烧，那就是你的副作用，”他说。”这对一个医疗体系来说，可能是一个非常不同的权衡——我们实际上可以通过转入药房来节省成本。”“不想教竞争”大多数像Keytruda这样的药物，平均每位患者每年花费超过20万美元，专利到期后将会有价格远低的仿制药。Bancel表示，Moderna的疫苗不会如此。
“Here the side effect is that of a vaccine: You might be tired tomorrow or spike a fever tonight, and that’s your side effect,” he said. “That might be a very different trade-off for a healthcare system to say we could actually save cost to your point by moving into pharmacy.”‘Don’t want to teach competition’Most drugs like Keytruda, which cost more than $200,000 a year for the average patient, will have far cheaper copies when its patents expire. Bancel said Moderna’s vaccine won’t.
他说，原因在于Moderna拥有专有软件，能扫描肿瘤DNA并挑选多达34个突变供疫苗靶向。他说，竞争对手无法对其进行逆向工程，因为该公司既未申请专利，也未公开该技术。“我们不想教会竞争对手，”班塞尔说。
The reason, he said, is because Moderna has proprietary software that scans a tumor’s DNA and picks up to 34 mutations for the vaccine to target. Competitors won’t be able to reverse-engineer it, he said, because the company has neither patented nor published the technology. “We don’t want to teach competition,” Bancel said.
他并未排除日后为公众利益公开这些信息的可能——但这不会很快发生。
He isn’t ruling out publishing this information for the public’s benefit somewhere down the line—but that won’t happen soon.
活检问题 测试期间出现的一个问题是，最初筛选的人群中有17%被排除，因为Moderna未能获得足够的肿瘤样本来定制疫苗。班塞尔说，这一比例很高，但他预计肿瘤取样情况会有所改善。
Biopsy problem One issue during testing was that 17% of people who were initially screened had to be excluded because Moderna didn’t get enough of a tumor sample to customize its shot. Bancel said that rate was high, but he expects sampling tumors to improve.
“在为产品上市做准备之际，默克和Moderna已组建团队，前往医院对其进行培训，”他说。
“As we are prepping the launch of the product, Merck and Moderna have set up teams for hospitals to go train them,” he said.
癌症疫苗用于预防 班塞尔表示，他想开发能彻底预防癌症的疫苗。
Cancer vaccines as prevention Bancel said he wants to develop vaccines that can prevent cancer altogether.
Moderna有一款实验性疫苗有望做到这一点。它针对林奇综合征，这是一种遗传性疾病，会增加结肠癌、卵巢癌等癌症的风险，美国约有100万人携带该病症。
Moderna has an experimental vaccine that could do just that. It targets Lynch syndrome, an inherited condition that raises the risk of colon, ovarian and other cancers and is carried by about a million people in the U.S.
牛津大学正在进行一项小规模早期试验，以考察该疫苗的安全性，研究人员最终将检查它是否能预防息肉——结肠癌的早期前兆。班塞尔设想开展政府筛查活动，帮助找到患有该病症的人群，并让他们每年在药房接种一针。“我只是更倾向于做预防，”班塞尔说。“那更好。”
A small, early-stage trial at Oxford University is examining whether the vaccine is safe, and researchers will eventually check whether it prevents polyps—early precursors of colon cancer. Bancel envisions government screening campaigns to help find people with the condition and an annual pharmacy shot for those with the syndrome. “I just prefer to do prevention,” Bancel said. “It’s better.”