Read the Conversation
EF: What attracted you to join the Moderna project in 2021?
JCG: I was mainly drawn to Moderna's technology and platform. When I was in Novartis many years ago, biotech was the thing that kept calling my name and tempting me to move. New technology, such as recombinant technology used to create new medicines, was coming onto the market. Six years ago, I came across the first information about mRNA technology. In the beginning, I was a little bit confused and doubtful about it. I then had the opportunity to see a couple of clinical studies and the preliminary results of this technology. I was on board from that day on. I fell in love with the technology, its potential, and its capacity for changing and saving lives. The love of this technology is why I joined this project.
EF: What are the current priorities on your agenda, and what can we expect from Morderna Spain in 2024?
JCG: My time at Moderna has been a roller coaster. News and updates are constant in Moderna. A few weeks ago, regulatory bodies approved our adapted medicine against COVID-19. Our goal in this area is to continue serving countries by providing effective and adaptive solutions to combat the emerging COVID variants. I recently read a new report about the new variants that are coming to the market, and it is amazing that things are moving very fast. The most important objective in combating this virus is to prevent new waves and protect the most vulnerable people.
We recently filed regulatory applications for the RSV vaccine for adults over 60 years old. This vaccine has demonstrated 83.7 percent efficacy against RSV in trials. We are advancing in many different areas, with our main gains being in respiratory. This is a giant step supported by our innovative mRNA platform. It has enabled us to move from early clinical testing to our first international phase three trial and initiate regulatory submission for this RSV vaccine in just two years. This is the passion that we were talking about at the beginning.
We are also in phase three for our influenza candidate in the fourth quarter of this year, and the company expects to present data on a next-generation combination of COVID-19 and influenza. Things are moving fast, and we have a lot of things on the agenda, portfolio, and priorities for 2024.
We are also making great strides in the oncology field. We want to create personalized solutions to treat each cancer. We currently have a Phase 2B study underway for the treatment of adult patients with aggressive and advanced stages of melanomas. Later this year, we plan to start the second Phase Three trial for non-small cell lung cancer.
In the near future, we also expect to launch a rare disease franchise. In the next five years, the company expects to launch up to 15 new products to address unmet needs. We also plan to introduce up to 50 new candidates into clinical trials and continue to expand our mRNA field into new applications. Our 2024 agenda is quite ambitious.
EF: Spain is a hub for clinical trials. What is the significance of Spain to Moderna as this big global company?
JCG: It has been 12 years since our inception, and Moderna has grown from a research-stage company developing programs in the RNA field to a company with a broad clinical portfolio and pipeline of vaccines and therapeutics. After 2020, the goal was to create innovative, transformative medicines based on mRNA technology. Our technology and extensive scientific knowledge have enabled us to deliver solutions in record time. For example, Moderna played a fundamental role during the coronavirus pandemic. Moderna has a very good synergy with Spain. I am strongly committed to my country, and it is a key market for the growth and evolution of Moderna at the national and global levels.
Moderna has invested around 500 million euros in Spain. Part of this investment is through our collaboration with Rovi, the manufacturer of Moderna mRNA vaccines and other vaccines in our pipeline. We are creating a footprint in Spain, which is expanding Spain's and Europe's access to state-of-the-art technology. This investment will allow us to inaugurate a new state-of-the-art international testing center for mRNA vaccines in Madrid, which is another big step forward. This new laboratory is the first outside of the United States with these characteristics, and that allows us to cover the value chain end-to-end. This includes producing, distributing, and packaging from Spain to more than 60 countries around the world.
EF: What is it that specifically makes Spain such an attractive market for such investment?
JCG: Spain is one of the most important centers in the world in terms of the quantity and quality of clinical trials. This is something that is influencing the decision to drive investment. Spain is in Europe, and Europe is one of the markets that we would like to effectively cover. Although we have some facilities in Switzerland, it does not belong to the European Union. Politically, Spain serves us better to cater to the EU market.
Spain is an attractive market due to the availability of talent and people with a passion for this kind of technology. We also feel economically and politically secure in Spain. There is less risk in investments, and we have the capacity to reach many other talented people in the European Union. These factors make Madrid an attractive location for the best talent across the EU. Spain is our biggest footprint outside the United States.
EF: Moderna was recently awarded as a top employer. How is Moderna attracting and retaining the best talent in Spain and globally?
JCG: We put a lot of focus on recruiting the best talent. We are not looking for geniuses without values. We are looking for people with values who could be geniuses. This is a completely different concept. You need to find people who have the right values, the right mindset, the right approach to people, the right perception, and the right open-mindedness. Once these people are found, the learning passion can be seeded in them, and they can quickly learn to accept and adapt to the technology. We look for people with great values.
Spanish people are open-minded and innovative. We do not like barriers and like to go out of our comfort zone to go further. These are the qualities we look for when we recruit talent. We look for people with values who can generate an innovative spirit. There are a lot of educated people in the market. We want people to grow as they work. Moderna is a value-based open company where people develop as they are, not as we want. This is the key element.
EF: What is the importance of collaboration, and how is Moderna working with different stakeholders within the sector to advance the industry?
JCG: We faced many challenges during the pandemic and learned some great lessons. One of the greatest lessons we learned is that we cannot make progress without collaboration. The pandemic saw the coming together of many different stakeholders across the world. There was a sharing of information between universities, associations, and patients. Everybody was working toward one common objective, which was shared with everybody, and nobody was hiding information. This resulted in the development and approval of vaccines in record time. This would not have been possible without collaboration between companies, global industries, public research centers, and institutions. Biomedical innovation and public-private collaboration were two of the cornerstones for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and future health crises.
Collaboration should be more commonplace in the industry if we want to overcome barriers to future science. We need collaboration to boost R&D and accelerate and streamline the development of effective solutions. Our regulatory system is currently stretching us a little bit on these kinds of things. Collaboration can benefit professionals and patients by developing treatments that improve overall survival rates and quality of life. This is our ultimate goal. We are committed to investing as much as we can and looking for new solutions. Our overinvesting is justified because we have to save lives.
EF: Our report is called "A road map to sustainable healthcare." From your perspective and Moderna's, if you had to name three key pillars for a prosperous and sustainable healthcare system in Spain, what would they be?
JCG: Firstly, we need to be able to reduce drug approval and financing times. It does not make sense to develop a drug that is going to save a lot of lives but cannot be accessed due to red tape. Public and private collaboration can help reduce approval times significantly. Sometimes, it is not a question of money; it is a question of mindset. There are talks between the Minister of Health and the Pharmaceutical Industry to try to speed up and finance new drugs, with the proposal that companies should be responsible for carrying out studies of the economic impact on therapies that they want to introduce to markets. These are the solutions that we can put in place. Access is the most important pillar.
Secondly, it is essential to have a regulatory framework that encourages innovation. For example, in Spain, a new vaccine can take eight years to get to patients once it is launched. This is completely crazy. We need to accept that there are new technologies that can be used to develop drugs much faster. Eighty-five percent of our platform technology is common for all the vaccines. We should not have to demonstrate the same steps over and over again. Everything is tested, and we know with absolute precision what is going to happen. I understand the need to ensure the safety and efficacy of medical products, but the development time period should be shorter.
Finally, innovation must reach patients as soon as possible. This is essential. The lack of access to innovative drugs in Spain in recent years is damaging the quality, effectiveness, cohesion, and equity of the health system. This is mainly harming the patients, not the companies or systems. We need to give patients access to the most effective treatments without delay. We must achieve the sustainability of the system, and the patient's quality of life is our priority.
EF: You have lived through one of the most disruptive times in modern history. What have been your biggest lessons learned as the general manager of Moderna in Spain, and what message do you have for the future leaders of the sector?
JCG: My main concern during the pandemic was to ensure that vaccines were accessible to the majority of the population at the right time. The biggest lesson I took away from that is, "When people want something, it can be done." We had a positive collaboration with the health authorities, patient associations, the pharma industry, and distribution centers. Everyone was willing to help. When there is a willingness to help, everything can be achieved. The pandemic saw us performing miracles. We were doing things at speeds never seen before. When people collaborate, things are much easier. We need to remind ourselves of that period and how we were finding solutions. This is one of the things that I would like to highlight.
We need to adopt and accept a digital transformation. This will speed up everything in the healthcare sector and save us time. Solutions will be developed faster. Artificial intelligence and big data are disrupting our industry. Whoever is not aware of that is out of the game and will become obsolete, like the dinosaurs. We have to create a regulatory framework that controls how things evolve. Artificial intelligence is almost everywhere. It helps us in our daily lives, and we need to take advantage of it.
Anything can be achieved when we have a collaborative spirit. We also have to be aware that when lives are at risk, resources can be found because we know how to prioritize. Politics can make priorities unclear. We need to have a clear understanding of what is important and what is not important. The lives of the people are the first priority in our society.
Finally, you need to be passionate and confident that you are doing the right thing. This will enable you to do more than you could imagine. Keep your teams motivated and the people engaged. They will love this responsibility and respond to you amazingly.
