April 11 Quick Takes: VintaBio debuts with $64M to tackle viral vector bottleneck

Founded by a pair of gene therapy veterans, VintaBio Inc. emerged from stealth to address the viral vector manufacturing bottleneck as a specialized gene therapy CDMO. The company launched with a $64 million undisclosed venture round led by Decheng Capital and a manufacturing facility in Philadelphia that’s operational and accepting orders. VintaBio was founded by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) researchers Junwei Sun and Shangzhen Zhou. Sun was co-founder of Spark Therapeutics Inc. and was involved in the development of Luxturna voretigene neparvovec, while Zhou helped develop Zolgensma onasemnogene abeparvovec from Novartis AG (SIX:NOVN; NYSE:NVS).

At its Vaccine Day on Tuesday, Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) said it expects its respiratory franchise to deliver $8-$15 billion in 2027 sales, including sales of COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus products. The company also disclosed that an interim analysis of the Phase III P302 study of flu vaccine MRNA-1010 showed that the product has not yet met the statistical threshold for early success; the study will continue. Results from a previous Phase III trial, P301, were mixed...