Biology Digest

Oct 12 (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc  (MRK.N)  opted to jointly develop and potentially sell a personalized mRNA vaccine with Moderna Inc  (MRNA.O)  for a $250 million upfront payment on Wednesday, sending the vaccine maker's shares up over 8%. Moderna's experimental vaccine is being tested in combination with Merck's blockbuster cancer immunotherapy, Keytruda, in a mid-stage trial to treat patients with melanoma. Data on the vaccine, mRNA-4157, is expected in the fourth quarter of this year. In 2016, Merck and Moderna entered a strategic partnership to develop a personalized vaccine for treatment of various types of cancer. Merck in 2020 sold its equity investment in Moderna, benefiting from a surge in the vaccine-maker's stock price that year. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/merck-opts-jointly-develop-cancer-vaccine-with-moderna-2022-10-12/

 

 

 

 

 

For decades now, we have been told by NGOs such as Greenpeace, well-meaning but uninformed celebrities like Mark Ruffalo and the threat to global food security herself, Vandana Shiva, that organic farming is more sustainable and produces comparable yields to conventional farming methods. We all, including myself, want this to be true but deep down we all know when we see the premium price tag on organic produce that it’s not. The sad reality is that the organic movement is simply marketing disguised as a grassroots movement relying on, and amplifying, the ignorance of its own consumers. It survives by distorting science and promoting a false narrative that organic food is somehow safer or is more nutritional than conventional foods. That is not to say there is no shortage of problems associated with chemical-intensive large-scale agriculture, but the solution to these problems is not to take us back to the dark ages and for us to ignore all the advancements in technology that have take...