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. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to rage, one small biotech company was already hard at work using novel RNA technology to generate vaccines. Loftus (Wall Street Journal) explores the story of Moderna from its beginnings as a small, struggling start-up through today, operating as a powerhouse in the fight against COVID-19. The author describes the early efforts of researchers such as Derrick Rossi and Katalin Karikó, some of the first scientists to begin experimenting with RNA as a therapeutic agent. He then provides insight into how their research made the leap from academic laboratories into the biotech world, retracing the founding narrative and growth of Moderna and drawing on interviews conducted with more than 150 individuals. Loftus reveals some ups and downs of the company's beginning years, including details on the struggle to find people to run and finance the venture, given the problematic lack of sellable product, and the quick turnover of personnel under CEO Stéphane Bancel. The story concludes by recalling the development and production of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine and the speed with which it happened. Today the name Moderna is practically synonymous with relief from COVID-19. This book offers a fascinating view inside the company behind the vaccine. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Claudia Kale, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences University

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)