READ: ARW ON RNA

  1. RNA Therapeutics: Navigating The "Holy Trinity" Of Structure, Process, & Biology 11/19/2024

    During our hour-long conversation, Sagaert and I covered a lot of ground on the current state of the industry. But given his background in quality, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that our conversation ultimately gravitated back to some of the biggest questions we currently have and need to answer about our product’s structure and function — and how to adequately demonstrate this critical knowledge to regulators.

  2. Lessons From The Past: How mRNA Can Thrive In The Evolving ATMP Market 11/4/2024

    Fortunately, as multiple presenters during the AGC CDMO Summit explained, there have been a few historical case studies of how the industries preceding us did (or didn’t quite) do the due-diligence they should have to trigger meaningful societal change. Not only do these case studies provide a few tactical pointers for those of us in the mRNA/RNA therapeutics space, I also think they can be particularly instructive in helping us craft/finetune mRNA’s value proposition.

  3. A Tale of Two Futures: Financial Trends Shaping The Advanced Therapies Space 10/25/2024

    In the first of this two-part article, I’ll share a few of the commercial nuances informing what the path forward may look like for all of us in the ATMP financial sector.

  4. A "Flight Plan" For Achieving These 3 mRNA Development Milestones 10/18/2024

    Here, in the final installment of this three-part series, I’ll share the panelists’ greatest learning experiences and regulatory advice (so far) on what we should be looking out for as we strive to achieve three big milestones: Entering the clinic; implementing advanced manufacturing technologies into our processes; and standardizing our manufacturing platforms.

  5. Are We Actually Living In An mRNA Regulatory "Desert?" 10/11/2024

    Fortunately for us, the panel shared a few important reminders for us all as we continue to navigate mRNA in a variety of different therapeutic applications and, perhaps, as we explore the implementation of advanced manufacturing technologies in our mRNA-LNP manufacturing processes. In the second of this three-part article series, I walk through one big takeaway I had from this panel’s conversation about the current state of mRNA regulatory affairs.

  6. Shifting Sands Scales: Manufacturing Considerations For Small-Scale mRNA Production 9/30/2024

    Though mRNA may, in theory, be the “perfect technology” for scaling up/out and down, several industry experts from a panel during Cytiva’s recent RNA-LNP Summit explained that the successful transition from large to small-scale, high-quality mRNA production demands specific manufacturing capability improvements/advancements. In the first of this two-part article, I outline a few of these important manufacturing and outsourcing considerations that must accompany our shift to smaller scales.

  7. One Unspoken Issue With The FDA's Platform Designation 9/19/2024

    Subjectivity and hearsay will no doubt play a big role in how we approach the FDA's Platform Designation guidance moving forward, and I daresay these hard to mitigate factors will complicate our relationship with this designation in the future. 

  8. FDA's Platform Guidance Raises Long-Term Questions For mRNA Makers 9/5/2024

    As I read through the FDA's draft platform designation guidance and listened to various panel discussions the past few months, a handful of additional observations and considerations came to mind that are important to reiterate for the RNA space, particularly as we advance into therapeutics development.

  9. Two "Spicy" Takeaways On The FDA's Platform Designation Guidance 8/29/2024

    Over the past few weeks since the guidance was released, I’ve spent some time listening to industry conversations and reading the guidance and related articles. In the following series of articles, I’ll share a few general impressions and (slightly spicy) thoughts I’ve been mulling over in response to the draft guidance. 

  10. Is This The Hardest Question Facing mRNA Therapeutics Makers? 8/18/2024

    As I’ve been reminded on a few different occasions, there is a difficult truth we may need to wrap our brains around in certain situations: Just because we can make an mRNA therapy for an indication, doesn’t necessary mean we should — or that the patient population will necessarily want it or be able to access it.