Moderna, AstraZeneca heart drug succeeds early-stage trial

Biotech unicorn Moderna Therapeutics said on Thursday its heart drug, developed along with British drugmaker AstraZeneca met the main goal in an early-stage trial.

The company, which develops drugs based on a molecule known as messenger RNA, said AstraZeneca has submitted a clinical trial application in Europe for a mid-stage study of the drug, mRNA AZD-8601, in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) carries the recipe for making proteins inside the body. Using it as a medicine could offer a new way to tackle many hard-to-treat diseases, from cancer to infections to heart and kidney disorders.

AstraZeneca first invested $240 million in 2013 to access Moderna's know-how in manipulating RNA, or ribonucleic acid, which helps create proteins inside cells - another example of CEO Pascal Soriot placing a bet on new science.

In 2016, AstraZeneca invested another $140 million in Moderna, which already has a cash pile of around $1 billion.

(Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)