MRNA vs VIR

Moderna Inc.

Moderna, Inc., a biotechnology company, develops therapeutics and vaccines based on messenger RNA for the treatment of infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and auto-immune diseases. As of March 9, 2021, the company had 13 programs in clinical trials and a total of 24 development programs in six modalities comprising prophylactic vaccines, cancer vaccines, intratumoral immuno-oncology, localized regenerative therapeutics, systemic secreted and cell surface therapeutics, and systemic intracellular therapeutics. The company has strategic alliances with AstraZeneca PLC, Merck & Co., Inc., Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe) Limited, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Institutes of Health, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Moderna, Inc. also has collaborations with Lonza Ltd. for the manufacture of COVID-19 vaccine; and Catalent Inc., Laboratorios Farmacéuticos Rovi, S.A., Recipharm, and Lonza Group for fill-finish manufacturing of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, as well as Aldevron, LLC for supporting COVID-19 vaccine and additional programs in company's clinical development pipeline. The company was formerly known as Moderna Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Moderna, Inc. in August 2018. Moderna, Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Vir Biotechnology Inc.

Vir Biotechnology, Inc., a clinical-stage immunology company, develops therapeutic products to treat and prevent serious infectious diseases. It develops VIR-2218 and VIR-3434 for the treatment of hepatitis B virus; VIR-2482 for the prevention of influenza A virus; VIR-1111 for the prevention of human immunodeficiency virus; and VIR-2020 for the prevention of tuberculosis. The company has grant agreements with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and National Institutes of Health; an option and license agreement with Brii Biosciences Limited and Brii Biosciences Offshore Limited; a collaboration and license agreement with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; a collaboration, license, and option agreement with Visterra, Inc.; license agreements with The Rockefeller University and MedImmune, Inc.; collaboration with WuXi Biologics and Glaxo Wellcome UK Ltd.; and a collaborative research agreement with Generation Bio., as well as GlaxoSmithKline Intellectual Property Development Limited, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals SA., and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. It also has a manufacturing agreement with Samsung Biologics Co.,Ltd. for the manufacture of SARS-COV-2 antibodies for potential COVID-19 treatment; and clinical collaboration with Gilead Sciences, Inc. for chronic hepatitis B virus. Vir Biotechnology, Inc. was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.