The man who launched Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine in the UK three years ago – when 90-year-old Margaret Keenan in Coventry became the first person in the world to receive one – is now overseeing the construction of a manufacturing and research centre in Oxfordshire for rival US jab maker Moderna.
The company’s Harwell site is Britain’s first centre dedicated to the production of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines against new Covid variants and other illnesses, and part of the UK’s “100 days mission” initiative – the ambition for governments to be able to respond to future pandemics within 100 days of a threat being identified.
Moderna and others are using mRNA – which teaches cells how to make a specific protein that triggers the body’s immune response against disease – to develop therapies for various conditions, including cancer, HIV, norovirus and rare diseases, particularly those in children.
Darius Hughes, who trained as a pharmacist and worked for Pfizer for 17 years before being poached by Moderna in 2021 to set up its UK operation as general manager, says: “The flexibility of the messenger RNA platform means that within about 100 days of any mutation, we can have a vaccine reformulated and on the market ready for vaccination into people. That’s a lot quicker than a traditional vaccines platform.”
With Moderna working on combined flu and Covid shots, he says, “the Department of Health can come to us and request a specific UK mix for UK patients. We can combine a lot of messenger RNAs together so that you can make it very simple for the NHS to deliver.”
Moderna developed one of the world’s first two Covid jabs based on mRNA during the pandemic – Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech were behind the other – and both were quick to adapt their shots to the Omicron variants in 2022.
However, the virus remains a problem for the NHS, which has come under pressure in recent weeks from a surge in the number of Covid and flu admissions to hospital. Nevertheless, Covid shots are now only given by the NHS to over-65s, those with underlying health conditions, health workers and carers.
Moderna plans to make its Covid jab available privately in the UK later this year. It is expected to cost between £50 and £100 – versus £9 to £20 for a flu shot – but pharmacies and private clinics will set their own price, Hughes says. The company’s Spikevax jab can already be bought over the counter in the US for about $120 (£100). Pfizer is also exploring selling its Comirnaty Covid jab privately in the UK.
Moderna is also focusing its mRNA knowhow on rare diseases in children and personalised cancer vaccines. “In rare diseases, what we’re doing is an intravenous injection,” says Hughes. “We are putting in some messages there that help the body to produce a protein that is missing in the children.” The illnesses targeted include inherited metabolic disorders in which the body cannot break down certain proteins and fats.
In skin cancer cases, Moderna takes a part of the tumour cells that have been cut out during surgery, sequences the patient’s DNA and makes mRNA signals. These are injected into the body and tell the body to produce antibodies to attack the cancer cells. “Unlike normal cancer therapy, which kills everything fairly indiscriminately, these are like targeted missiles,” says Hughes.
Bigger late-stage clinical trials led by Moderna’s partner Merck (known as MSD outside the US) are beginning in the UK and elsewhere, and according to Moderna the vaccine could be launched under accelerated approval in some countries by 2025. Another late-stage trial for non-small-cell lung cancer is also under way.
Moderna hopes to launch a combined flu and Covid vaccine next year, followed in 2026 by a triple shot including not only flu and Covid but also respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which can cause severe illness and hospitalisation in children and older people.
The company has submitted a new RSV vaccine for regulatory approval, but is lagging behind UK rival GSK and Pfizer, whose RSV vaccines are already on the market. Meanwhile, a recent Sanofi and AstraZeneca trial indicated its jab could cut RSV hospital admissions of babies and young children by 80%.
Harwell will be Moderna’s biggest base outside the US: the lab is already in place and will open later this year. About 150 people will work at the site, including 50 scientists. The factory is expected to produce up to 100m vaccine doses a year from 2025, which could be ramped up to 250m doses by running three shifts a day, seven days a week, if there were another pandemic – “plenty for the UK and beyond”, Hughes says.
He describes himself as a “failed doctor”, having been good at science and maths at school in his home town of Poole in Dorset but failing to get the grades for medical school. In the end he “loved” studying pharmacy at Portsmouth University.
After a six-month stint in the NHS, he worked for Boots for 15 years and then joined the pharmaceutical industry, with various roles at Pfizer, including a two-year spell in Paris and seven years running the UK and Ireland vaccines division.
After delivering 15m Covid shots for Pfizer in the early part of 2021, Hughes was exhausted, having worked long hours, seven days a week, for a year. So when he received a call from Moderna asking him to be their first commercial employee in the UK, he was ready for a change.
While looking promising, personalised cancer vaccines throw up challenges with clinical trials and regulatory approval because they are “individual to a particular person” – but Hughes believes they are the future.
“Medicine is going personalised, and it’s not just in vaccines and in cancer,” he says. “We’re going to have to be at the forefront of this.”
He says the government did not offer any incentives in return for Moderna establishing Britain’s first mRNA vaccine hub. However, the UK has committed to buying Moderna’s therapies over the next decade and ordered 60m doses of its Covid vaccine in December 2021; a tranche of these are being delivered during the current booster campaign.
Globally, Moderna has delivered more than 1bn doses of its Covid vaccine – its only commercial product – but has been criticised for its high pricing, which resulted in sales of $18.4bn in 2022. They have since declined, to $6.7bn last year after the US declared the pandemic over, and are predicted to fall to $4bn this year. The firm wrote down unused doses and made a $4bn loss before tax in the nine months to 30 September. Its goal is to break even in 2026.
As part of its 10-year partnership with the government, Moderna is building up a UK supply chain, including vials and needles, to ensure Britain is prepared for the next pandemic. The company has launched 17 clinical trials in the UK since 2021, including Covid, flu and RSV studies, and more trials for rare diseases and combination vaccines are planned to take place in Britain.
One of Moderna’s investors is the hedge fund Thélème Partners, of which Rishi Sunak was a founding partner, before quitting in 2013 to go into politics. It is unclear whether he retains a stake in the fund. “We are not privy to information about individuals who have contributed into the Thélème hedge fund,” Moderna says.
CV
Age 55
Family Married with two grow-up daughters.
Education Poole grammar school; studied pharmacy at Portsmouth University.
Last holiday Skiing in France.
Best advice he’s been given “Enjoy the journey.”
Biggest career mistake “Take the easy path and don’t stretch yourself.”
Overused phrase “Keep it simple.”
How he relaxes Running, playing tennis and going to the pub with family and friends.
