The success of mRNA technology and its potential uses in therapeutics and preventative medical treatment may create a new technology ecosystem, the Harvard Business Review reported April 18.
As has happened with other health IT innovations like CRISPR, mRNA-based organizations could share their core technology with each other and develop new products around their common base. This could lead to new ecosystems of mRNA platforms that innovate to create new solutions in the pharmaceutical industry.
Big companies may also move to share their technology with one another, opening up the potential for accelerated innovation. Pharmaceutical giants like Moderna and BioNTech have already moved to open up their mRNA technologies to other large pharmaceutical companies in an attempt to build an industry platform.
If mRNA technologies prove to be broadly applicable across the pharmaceutical industry, they may become to pharmaceuticals what Apple's iOS is to the digital sector, a tightly controlled but technological core to the industry, argue the international team of researchers who authored the piece.