Moderna, a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, is expanding its mRNA pipeline with three new development programs. These programs are: Herpes simplex virus (HSV) vaccine candidate, Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) vaccine candidate and Checkpoint cancer vaccine.

This announcement reflects Moderna’s commitment to expanding its portfolio building on Moderna's experience with Spikevax, its COVID-19 vaccine. The development programs announced are mRNA vaccine candidates against herpes simplex virus (HSV), varicella-zoster virus (VSV) to reduce the rate of shingles and a new checkpoint cancer vaccine.

HSV and VZV are latent viruses that remain in the body for life after infection and can lead to life-long medical conditions.

Moderna now has five vaccine candidates against latent viruses in development, including against cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), Human immunodeciency virus (HIV), HSV and VZV.

"We are pleased to announce these new development programs, which reect the continued productivity of our platform and the potential of our mRNA technology to impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people," said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer, Moderna.

"We are committed to addressing latent viruses with the goal of preventing the lifelong medical conditions that they cause with our mRNA vaccine programs. With our HSV and VZV vaccine candidates, we also hope to improve the quality of life for those with symptomatic disease. With our new checkpoint cancer vaccine, we look forward to exploring if we can induce T cells specic to PD-L1 and IDO1 through vaccination. Our research teams are working on additional mRNA candidates, which we look forward to sharing in the future."