Meet Stephane Bancel, the CEO of Moderna, a company developing a coronavirus vaccine in record time, who just became a billionaire

Stéphane Bancel is the CEO of Moderna, a Massachusetts-based biotech company that is working on a coronavirus vaccine.

Forbes estimates that Bancel's net worth grew to around $1 billion after Moderna stocks jumped by 12% in the first week of April. This closely followed the news that they expect to start a mid-stage study of its coronavirus vaccine in a few months. Bancel owns about 9% of the company.

Source: Forbes, CNBC

While vaccines typically work by giving a patient a tiny bit of the virus they're trying to kill, Moderna's coronavirus vaccine uses just the ribonucleic acid (RNA) genetic material from the virus. The RNA gives the body the genetic information of the virus so it can create the proteins it needs to heal itself.

Source: Business Insider, Axios

The method of using just the genetic material of a virus for a vaccine is part of Bancel's vision for Moderna, which he says can be applied to vaccines for viruses other than the coronavirus.

Source: Business Insider

The method allows for quicker and lower-cost vaccine development, according to Bancel. Moderna translated the genetic code of the novel coronavirus into a vaccine in 42 days. Comparatively, after the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, it took 20 months to begin testing a vaccine.

Source: Business Insider

The technology is called messenger RNA, and it's still is an unproven technology. There are no FDA-approved drugs or vaccines coming from it yet, and Moderna has no approved drugs or vaccines.

Source: Business Insider

Moderna was founded in 2010 to make messenger-RNA-based drugs. The company has 21 messenger-RNA-based drugs in the works, and 10 of them are in clinical trials.

Source: Chemical & Engineering News, Business Insider

Bancel joined Moderna in 2011. Before that, he was the CEO of a French diagnostics company called BioMérieux.

Source: Forbes

At BioMérieux, Bancel developed a reputation as a strict manager. An equities analyst who covered the company during Bancel's tenure told STAT, "I think if you're underperforming, you'll probably find yourself looking for another job."

Source: STAT

Bancel grew up in France. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and two master's degrees in engineering from École Centrale Paris and the University of Minnesota.

Source: Forbes

The vaccine, which Moderna hopes to have ready for emergency use in the fall, is now being tested by healthy volunteers in clinical trials in Seattle and Atlanta. The first volunteer received a dose of the vaccine on March 16.

Source: Business Insider

Bancel told Business Insider he expects to get data about the safety of the vaccine in the spring, and he expects to get data showing how well the vaccine triggers an immune response, known as immunogenicity, in the late spring or early summer.

Source: Business Insider