The mRNA vaccine technology behind some of the authorized SARS-CoV-2 vaccines is also being applied to other diseases, including cancer, CBS Sunday Morning reports.
"We've had an incredible year using messenger RNA to fight a pandemic," Stephen Hoge, the president of Moderna, tells it. "But we think we're just starting in the infectious disease space. And so, there's a large number of other vaccines we're bringing forward."
As CBS Sunday Morning notes, the company is pursuing a vaccine for HIV, aims to streamline the process for making influenza vaccines, and is also developing vaccines for cancers like lymphoma and melanoma. One, for melanoma, is in clinical testing, it adds. BioNTech, which worked with Pfizer on their mRNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, is similarly seeking to expand its repertoire and is working on a tuberculosis and an HIV vaccine, as the Financial Times noted earlier this month.
At the same time, Moderna is also working on SARS-CoV-2 boosters, which CBS Sunday Morning says it is considering – if boosters are indeed needed – rolling that together with its flu vaccine so that people only need one shot.