STAT+: Inside Moderna and Merck’s cancer vaccine triumph

At an off-site leadership meeting held by Moderna in March 2023 — after mid-stage results of the biotech company’s cancer vaccine showed promise — CEO Stéphane Bancel had the floor. He asked if any of the 100 or so executives present had expected the experimental treatment to succeed. If they did, he said, please stand up. Stephen Hoge, Moderna’s president, was standing on stage. He sat down. Then, Hoge recalled in an interview with STAT, Bancel sat down, too. “None of us believed it,” Hoge said...