The a16z Show · Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Bancel contrasted Moderna's mRNA approach with immunotherapies like Keytruda, explaining that while Keytruda "leashes" the immune system to fight cancer somewhat randomly, Moderna's mRNA vaccine specifically teaches T-cells what to target. He noted that current immunotherapies only work for about 60% of patients and can have serious side effects.
“So if you look at Ketruida, which is kind of one of the leading immunotherapy that people might have heard of, is basically, if I oversimplify for non-biologists, it's basically a molecule that basically open the gates for letting the dogs out that are going to go and attack your cancer from your immune system, if you want.”
“But only 60% of people have disease free after five years.”
“The side effect of immunotherapy are mostly immune disease. So you see people if you look at the label of a clinical studies, people that get checkpoints, whether it's Ketruida or another type of checkpoints from our companies, they end up having type one diabetes, lupus, Crohn's disease, this type of things.”
“Whereas our product is going to be the molecular level inside your immune system to very specifically teach your T cell, this is what you need to look for.”