COVID and cancer pose monumental challenges to research scientists working diligently to solve these epic problems and Cambridge has become a hotbed of activity within the burgeoning biotech industry. Moderna (MRNA) took a lead position among the COVID vaccine manufacturers and has a whole host of messenger RNA therapeutics in the works. During the last 12 months Moderna is up over 500%. Jounce Therapeutics (JNCE) is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company to treat cancer and they are up 300%+ over the last year. And then another clinical-stage immunotherapy company that focuses on red cell treatments, Rubius Therapeutics (RUBY), yesterday announced efficacy results for Phase 1/2 trials of their RTX-240 for patients with advanced solid tumors. They are up near 700% over the past year (and 84% yesterday alone).
Walter Isaacson (author, journalist, professor) just released a new book on gene editing, The Code Breaker, and he predicts that the biotech revolution will be bigger than the digital revolution that came before it by many magnitudes. And a lot of that biotech “friendly competition” is centered in the Boston area.
“I’m going to have to science the shit out of this.” –Mark Watney (Matt Damon), The Martian