Publishers Weekly
06/06/2022
Wall Street Journal reporter Loftus charts in his captivating debut Moderna’s spectacular rise from a small biotech company with “no products no profits” in 2018 to a key player in the race for a Covid-19 vaccine. Moderna’s success, Loftus writes, was “as improbable as it was miraculous” and due to the company’s gamble on using messenger RNA in its vaccine, as regulators had never approved its use as a drug. The vaccine failing or the virus “fizzl away like past outbreaks,” he posits, would’ve been a costly misstep for the company. Instead, the company became “a household name... on track to book more than $7 billion in profit for the first nine months of 2021.” Interviewing more than 150 insiders, including CEO Stéphane Bancel, Loftus pulls back the curtain on the vaccine development process as the pandemic raged: there were threatened patent fights, political hurdles, and complex logistical challenges in trialing and distributing the vaccine to millions of people. Loftus achieves no small feat with his sharp reporting: it’s gripping from page one, despite the fact that most readers already know the outcome. This is a great look at the business of pandemic medicine. Agent: Eric Lupfer, Fletcher & Co. (July)
From the Publisher
"This book offers a fascinating view inside the company behind the vaccine." — CHOICE, the publication of the American Library Association
"Mr. Loftus' book is an easy and great read for anyone interested in science and business." — Business Standard
"Wall Street Journal reporter Peter Loftus provides the inside track on the company in The Messenger, an engagingly pacy yet detailed narrative that traces the scientific origins of the Moderna story through the various dramas that led to the licensing of the vaccine in December 2020." — The Irish Times
"Offers readers an inside view of the company's ascent from secretive startup to one of the most valuable health care companies in the world." — Science magazine
"Based on nearly 300 interviews with more than 150 people, including Moderna employees, co-founders, members of the company's board and investors past and present, the book tells the story of the bet Moderna made on developing a vaccine for Covid-19." — Financial Times
"Wall Street Journal reporter Loftus charts in his captivating debut Moderna's spectacular rise from a small biotech company with "no products [and] no profits" in 2018 to a key player in the race for a Covid-19 vaccine." — Publisher's Weekly
"A satisfying look at how a smart business can both identify opportunity and do well by doing good." — Kirkus Reviews
Advance Praise for The Messenger:
"The Messenger delivers a riveting account of Moderna's unprecedented quest to develop a vaccine against Covid-19. With deep reporting and clear writing, Loftus compellingly chronicles the high-stakes drama behind one of the most important science-business stories of our time." — Ron Winslow, former Deputy Bureau Chief, Health and Science, and award-winning medical reporter, the Wall Street Journal
"Peter Loftus's new book is an in-depth look at how a controversial startup whose vaccine was one of the few miracles of the pandemic rose from nothing to a company that at its peak was valued at over $200 billion. The book is part business story, part science story, and entirely a story of people who wouldn't entertain the notion of failure." — Bethany McLean, contributing editor, Vanity Fair; columnist, Thomson Reuters; and coauthor, New York Times bestselling author, All the Devils Are Here
"The Messenger is a compelling, page-turning story of the development of the mRNA vaccine for Covid-19 by a collaboration between Moderna and scientists at the National Institutes of Health. Given the incredible importance of mRNA vaccines in combating both Covid-19 and other pathogens in the future, this well-written, accessible, and exciting narrative is a must-read." — Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH; Professor of Medicine and Associate Division Chief, HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine, Universityof California, San Francisco
Kirkus Reviews
2022-05-25
Fast-paced account of Moderna’s race to be first to market with a Covid-19 vaccine.
Wall Street Journal reporter Loftus opens his narrative, an able blend of science reporting and business history, at a telling moment: Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, on vacation in France in January 2020, reads about a mysterious virus in China and, on a dime, pivots the company to use that virus as a proof of concept for a new kind of vaccine. Moderna aimed to use messenger RNA to introduce drugs developed on a constantly adaptable platform into the human body. Though the original “stopwatch drill” that Bancel had been examining centered on a rare disease caused by the Nipah virus, he and some of his board members and executives “thought Moderna should try for a coronavirus vaccine because they suspected the outbreak would get much bigger.” They were right. Coordinating the race for a vaccine that was spreading far faster than SARS, MERS, Zika, and other concerning viruses, Bancel had to take his small company to new levels of production in the face of the Trump administration’s patchwork medical and financial responses. It’s no small irony that a leader of the industry’s rapid-response team was a Moderna board member who was both a Moroccan immigrant and a one-time Marxist who worried that chasing the vaccine could ultimately harm Moderna since other projects would have to halt. Still, as Loftus writes, “Moderna agreed to cooperate with Operation Warp Speed in part because…it needed the money.” In the end, racing past regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles, it secured funding and produced a safe vaccine in record time. It also rose markedly in value, at one time surpassing Starbucks, UPS, and Citigroup. As Loftus writes in closing, Moderna has since been able to return to other quests, including genetically keyed cancer drugs that kick the immune system’s neoepitopes into high gear.
A satisfying look at how a smart business can both identify opportunity and do well by doing good.
