Moderna creates rare disease subsidiary Elpidera

Moderna Therapeutics Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.) launched Elpidera LLC, a subsidiary that will use Moderna's mRNA therapeutics platform to develop treatments for rare diseases. Greg Licholai, former SVP of real-world and late-stage research at Quintiles Inc., will be its president.

Moderna spokesperson Amanda Guisbond would not disclose which rare diseases Elpidera will target first, but said the subsidiary plans to bring a candidate into the clinic in the next 12-18 months. Moderna's platform creates modified mRNAs that are translated into therapeutic proteins in vivo (see BioCentury, Jan. 13, 2013). ...