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Moderna has caught the world’s attention after the vaccine it is working on proved to be up to 94.5 percent effective in fighting the Corona virus. This achievement prompted US President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden to comment on the great progress as soon as it was announced.
Moderna has become a big name in world news, and among the details has emerged a Lebanese figure with Armenian roots who chairs the company’s board of directors. Who is he? What is your role in achieving that rekindled hope in the world that the deadly epidemic could be controlled?
Nubar Afyan, 58, an Armenian-Lebanese investor, was born in Beirut in 1962 and emigrated with his family to Canada in 1976.
Avian, now known as a successful businessman, had studied chemical engineering at McGill University in Montreal in 1983 and then continued his education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with a Ph.D. in Bioengineering in 1987.
In 2000 he founded his company, Flag Ship Pioneering, an investment fund that specializes in investing in companies operating in the fields of health and medicine, according to the company’s website.
This company invests more than 100 scientific projects worth $ 30 billion, has registered thousands of patents and is developing many drugs.
An inventor in biotechnology
After studying at “MIT”, Nubar wanted to expand this field not only in the academic aspect, but also in the practical application, since he began his research that led him to the registration of more than 100 patents.
In 1998, he sold his vital organs company, Perspective, to the Birken Elmar-Aplera group, after Perspective achieved $ 100 million in annual revenue.
Then he became executive vice president of the “Apliira” Group.
Modern
In 2010, Moderna was one of the companies in which Avian invested through the Flagship Bioneering Fund.
After Moderna became one of the Nasdaq-listed companies, Avian took over as chairman of its Board of Directors.
The Modern Moment / Part 2 @moderna_tx President @NoubarAfeyan says his #vaccine It can be stored under refrigerated conditions, avoiding the need for deep freezing facilities.
“That’s a massive enablement to be able to distribute much more widely and much easier.” pic.twitter.com/KQi8BeftSy
– Julia Chatterley (@jchatterleyCNN) November 16, 2020
And earlier in the week, Moderna announced that its experimental Corona virus vaccine had shown 94.5 percent effectiveness. The company aims to produce 20 million doses of the vaccine by the end of December, after obtaining the necessary licenses.
The Moderna vaccine is based on modern technology based on inserting genetic instructions into human cells to stimulate them to produce a protein identical to the Corona virus protein and elicit an immune response against this protein.
The great immigrant
Nubar believes in the importance of improving and protecting human health through science, and is one of the advocates of the contribution of migrants to economic and scientific progress in developed countries.
He received the “Great Immigrant” Medal from the Carnegie Endowment in 2016, for outstanding contributions in the field of science, and as a foreign American, and in 2017 he received the “Golden Door” award from the New England International Institute.
It also received the Technology Pioneer Award from the World Economic Forum in 2012.
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