On September 12, 2024, Japanese Member of Parliament Ryuhei Kawada led a highly charged emergency press conference in Japan, voicing deep skepticism about the country’s upcoming launch of mRNA replicon vaccines, or what some call self-amplifying mRNA vaccines. The event set off alarm bells among critics of government policies, accusing authorities of prioritizing pharmaceutical profits over public health.
What are mRNA Replicon Vaccines?
As you know, mRNA COVID vaccines, like those developed by Pfizer and Moderna for COVID-19, use a small piece of genetic code (mRNA) to instruct your cells to produce a piece of the virus known as the spike protein.
On the other hand, self-amplifying mRNA vaccines, or replicon vaccines, represent a more advanced version where the mRNA not only instructs your cells to produce the spike protein but also makes copies of itself (yay! more mRNA…) once inside the cells.
ARCT-154, scheduled to be administered to the population in October 2024, is a self-amplifying mRNA COVID-19 vaccine from the dynamic duo of Arcturus Therapeutics and Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. In Japan, Arcturus Therapeutics found an ally in CSL Seqirus for crafting and distributing their vaccines through a local pharma company called Meiji Seika Pharma.
Arcturus Therapeutics is a biotech company located in San Diego, California, established in 2013. Just like Moderna, which didn’t release any products to the market until their mRNA experimental COVID vaccine, Arcturus also hasn’t launched any medical products yet, and their self-amplifying mRNA vaccine will be their first.
Arcturus was formed through a merger with Alcobra Pharma, an Israeli pharmaceutical company, after Alcobra faced difficulties during clinical trials, which led to their merger with Arcturus Therapeutics in 2017. Interestingly, Alcobra translates to “The Cobra.” You have to wonder who decided that naming their pharma company after a snake was a good idea. At this point, my eyes are rolling all the way to the back of my head, so I will stop talking about the company’s history here.
Hellbound and Down 