How mRNA technology can transform medicine in the Middle East

Moderna was built on a simple guiding premise: if using mRNA as a medicine works for one disease, it has the potential to work for many others. Following more than a decade of research as pioneers of this technology, the mRNA platform has taught us many valuable lessons, one of which is that it extends beyond a single pathogen, disease, or pandemic.  

mRNA is essentially an information molecule, which means that by investing in science, it is possible over time to create many applications of the technology, potentially changing the way medicine is made. In the Middle East, its potential has only just scratched the surface. 

To date, we have seen mRNA’s success in the region with the provision and rollout of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines throughout the pandemic – in countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait, among others. In the coming months and years, Moderna is committed to partnering with governments to meet the evolving needs of COVID-19 by advancing next-generation annual vaccines.  

Related: All you need to know about mRNA vaccines

While the public health emergency for COVID-19 has ended, it is still a public health threat in the region. The WHO recommends vaccination as a pillar of a sound public health approach, given the benefit of vaccination in reducing severe disease, hospitalisation, and death. The virus is here to stay, and that is why countries now need to think about preparedness and the role that future booster vaccines can play to protect the population in terms of matching the emerging variants.  

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) recently voted 21 to 0 to recommend a periodic update of the current COVID vaccine composition to a monovalent XBB lineage. Moderna is ready to support the Gulf Cooperation Council and the broader region with the roll-out of updated COVID-19 vaccines. For this, global regulators have aligned on an XBB.1.5-targeting vaccine candidate to support vaccination campaigns moving forward. 

Additionally, it is also worth noting that a recent study of the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) electronic health databases in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) demonstrated that for an older population, being hospitalised for COVID-19 vs. seasonal influenza was linked with a greater risk of death. Crucially, the risk of death was lower with the number of COVID-19 vaccinations. 

Beyond the potential of addressing COVID-19 in the Middle East over the long term, what is truly exciting is the potential of mRNA to help protect the population against a wide variety of other diseases that impact the region’s population and have a high unmet need. These include rare, metabolic, autoimmune, infectious diseases, immune-oncology, and cardiovascular diseases. 

There are also different and more prevalent diseases throughout the Middle East compared to the Western World, such as an increased prevalence of rare diseases. Collaborative work and partnerships in the mRNA space could serve to facilitate early discovery efforts for these, identify potential mRNA targets that can treat or mitigate their symptoms, and ultimately, develop lead vaccine candidates to fight these diseases. 

Moderna understands the value of collaboration, which is why in March 2022, as part of our global public health strategy, we launched a new programme, mRNA Access, that offers researchers worldwide use of our mRNA technology to explore new vaccines against emerging or neglected infectious diseases. We are keen to use this platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration in the region. 

The potential of the mRNA platform to transform medicine, not only in the Middle East but worldwide, is real. It is very powerful to think that our bodies can act as such an effective medicine factory and that human ingenuity has found a way to leverage this through mRNA.  

As for the mRNA story in the Middle East and its role in transforming medicine for the long term, this is only the beginning. In time, mRNA-based therapies have the potential to transform medicine across healthcare.  

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Cesar Sanz Rodriguez is the Vice President, Medical Affairs — Europe and Switzerland, Moderna. 

 

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