Moderna Curbing Investment in Vaccine Trials Due to US Backlash

Moderna Inc.’s chief executive officer said the company doesn’t plan to invest in new late-stage vaccine trials because of growing opposition to immunizations from US officials.

“You cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the US market,” Stéphane Bancel said in an interview with Bloomberg TV from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Regulatory delays and lack of support from US health officials are making the potential market size “much smaller,” he said.

Bancel’s comments are some of his strongest yet about the difficulties that vaccine makers face in the Trump administration. He ...