[BlackVanilla]

Relevant recent discussion: DARPA Awards Moderna a Grant for Up to $25M to Develop mRNA Therapeutics (2013) (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27359269)

[ethbr0]

mRNA technology will never go anywhere or develop anything useful. ;)

This is a prime example of wasteful government spending, when a free market could have better allocated investment!

[bassman9000]

A bit unfair. This is not a public agency allocation to a publicly executed project.

This is a private, for-profit enterprise with a public (_as in owned by the State_) customer.

Vastly different incentives when the customer and the one executing are not the same.

[bregma]

OK. Insulin, then. Some academics got to play with puppy dogs and get paid by the public purse, then then went and donated their patents to a non-profit. What a waste!

[trynumber9]

what an interesting take. traditional capital invested in Moderna's mRNA research too. https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-d...

[nafizh]

I think it was sarcasm.