Moderna will continue to lead clinical development and manufacturing of the asset, while Recordati will handle commercialization of mRNA-3927, which is under development for the rare metabolic disorder propionic acidemia.
Moderna is partnering with Italy’s Recordati for up to $160 million to develop a rare disease mRNA therapy that will deliver pivotal results later this year.
The deal, announced Friday, involved Moderna’s mRNA-3927, which is under development for propionic acidemia (PA). People with the rare metabolic disorder are unable to process certain proteins and fats, leading to a buildup of acids in the body that can cause life-threatening attacks. The condition is usually revealed within days of birth, causing poor feeding, weak muscle tone and vomiting, and in more serious cases, seizures, coma and death.
To address the disease, Moderna has been advancing mRNA-3927, an mRNA-based therapy that seeks to encode two enzymes that are deficient in people with the disorder. In a Phase I/II trial published in Nature in 2024, the therapy showed a 70% reduction in the risk of metabolic decompensation in eight participants during the 12-month treatment period. However, 94% of patients reported adverse events related to treatment. Moderna said that interim data revealed early signs of clinical benefit and infrequent treatment-limiting side effects.
Now, Moderna is teaming up with Recordati for support in advancing mRNA-3927. The American biotech will continue to lead clinical development and manufacturing of the asset. Recordati will pay $50 million upfront plus up to $110 million in near-term development and regulatory milestone payments, plus royalties on future sales. The Italian company will lead commercialization.
The deal comes amid tough times for Moderna, driven by declining COVID-19 vaccine sales and slow uptake of other products. The company has been on an aggressive cost-cutting push in an effort to break even by 2028. While Moderna reported early Q4 results in the upper end of target revenue, analysts said investors still want to see more reductions to support the break-even goal.
United States Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stressed that Democrats were united in insisting on their demands in thegovernment funding negotiations. The Senate passed a bill to fund the government until September, although with a measure funding the Department of Homeland Security for only two weeks.
"The Senate must separate the homeland security bill out of the large appropriations bill, and allow this chamber to make real changes, to overhaul [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and to end the violence," Schumer told reporters.
Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman warned the United States that Iran will be "emboldened" if the US decides not to strike it, Axios reported. He also allegedly denied that Saudi Arabia is turning against Israel, although one source said that "the more he said it, the less reassuring it sounded."
The report follows talks between Bin Salman and senior US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, at the White House on Thursday. However, it claims that Bin Salman left the meeting "without a clear idea" of Washington's plans for Iran.
Russia's second-largest oil producer, Lukoil, hasagreedto sell the bulk of its international assets - initially valued at $22 billion by analysts - to private equity heavyweight Carlyle, as Western sanctions continue to force a fire sale of Russian energy holdings abroad.
This sanctions-induced fire sale was expected, as the company had first unveiled in late October: "Lukoil informs that owing to introduction of restrictive measures against the Company and its subsidiaries by some states the Company announces its intention to sell its international assets."
The US sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft represented the first major round of economic penalties imposed on Moscow following Trump's return to his second term in the White House.
"I just felt it was time," Trump had told reporters on Oct. 22 while hosting NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office. "These are tremendous sanctions. We hope they won’t be on for long. We hope that the war will be settled."
It was seen as a way to pressure the Kremlin to the negotiating table - something with 'teeth'-but the reality has remained that the Zelensky government and its Western backers are unwilling to give up territory, which is a Moscow main sticking point.
The oil sanctions were imposed "as a result of Russia's lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine" - and that forced Lukoil into a formal bidding process.
The Carlyle deal notably excludes Lukoil's assets in Kazakhstan, which will remain under Lukoil Group ownership and continue operating under existing licenses.
The agreement is non-exclusive and remains contingent on multiple conditions, including regulatory approvals and explicit authorization from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for the transaction with Carlyle, according to various industry reports.
Discussions and negotiations with other potential buyers are still ongoing, Lukoil has said in the meantime.
Previously Chevron and ExxonMobil, as well as Abu Dhabi's International Holding Company (IHC), had expressed official interest to the U.S. Treasury in acquiring Lukoil's international portfolio.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday said he imposed a statewide disaster declaration to prevent the spread of a type of parasitic fly in his state.
The New World screwworm isn’t yet present in the United States or Texas, although officials say it has been spreading toward the U.S.–Mexico border. Abbot said it can cause potential problems for the U.S. livestock industry if it spreads northward across the border.
“State law authorizes me to act to prevent a threat of infestation that could cause severe damage to Texas property, and I will not wait for such harm to reach our livestock and wildlife,” he said in a statement.
The disaster declaration allows him to mobilize the Texas New World Screwworm Response Team to “fully utilize all state government prevention and response resources to prevent the re-emergence of this destructive parasite” and that “Texas is prepared to fully eradicate this pest if need be,” he said.
The governor added that the order directs the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Animal Health Commission to create the response team and partner with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to respond to the parasite.
Screwworms can infect livestock, wildlife, and people, health and agriculture authorities have said. The insect’s maggots can burrow into the skin, inflicting serious and, in some cases, fatal damage to an organism.
In a notice on its website, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it is usually found in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and South America. People are at a higher risk of contracting the infection if they travel to such areas or are around livestock in rural places where the screwworm flies are located and if they also have an open wound, according to the agency.
“NWS infestations are very painful,” the CDC says on its website, using an acronym for the New World screwworm. “If you have an NWS infestation, you may see maggots (larvae) around or in an open wound. They could also be in your nose, eyes, or mouth.”
The declaration from Abbott comes as the USDA said that, as of Jan. 22, the screwworm has not yet been detected in the United States.
Screwworms were previously found in the United States but were eradicated in 1966, the USDA said. Officials also eliminated a small outbreak reported in the Florida Keys in 2017, it said.
In August, officials said the first human case of a New World screwworm was detected in a person in Maryland who had at the time recently traveled to El Salvador. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told The Epoch Times at the time that the risk to the public posed by the infection was “very low.”
That same month, the USDA said it would launch an initiative to combat the spread of the parasite in the United States, describing it as a national security threat. The plan includes bolstering funding to technologies that will bolster U.S. sterile fly production that it said would prevent its spread as well as the construction of a “domestic sterile screwworm production facility” in Texas, it added.
Several city bus stops — including one right outside Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center — were still dangerously plagued by piles ofsnow several days after Winter Storm Fern, upset riders told The Post.
The treacherous mounds forced commuters — including some with canes — to navigate narrow, slippery paths down to the clearing in the roadway to their bus or avoid the spot altogether because of wheelchair and walker inaccessibility.
“Someone in a wheelchair couldn’t get over the mounds,” said Memorial Sloan Kettering office coordinator Lakeya Holmes at the bus shelter between East 67th and 68th streets.
Many bus riders are upset at the bus stops that are still plagued with piles of snow.Paul Martinka
Jessica Alequin, a financial specialist at nearby Weill Cornell Medicine, said, “I saw some people with walkers going in the street to get around the mounds.”
The mountains of snow were still a major issue outside the Upper East Side facility Wednesday night — more than three days after the blizzard started hammering the city Sunday — but appeared cleared by Thursday.
“Some of my co-workers have seen patients fall coming off the bus on Tuesday,” Lakeya said.
“MSK takes our sidewalks very seriously – you see how they’re cleared,” she said.
Many of the bus stops leave some riders to navigate narrow and slippery paths.Jenn Bain
Alequin, 36, said, “On Tuesday, there wasn’t even a path cleared to get onto the bus.
“We had to climb over the mountain of snow.”
While private property owners are responsible for cleaning their sidewalks, the city’s Department of Transportation is responsible for clearing roughly 3,400 bus stops with shelters through a third-party contractor, JCDecaux, agency reps said.
Consistently below-freezing temperatures this week have resulted in persistent snow and ice, which may take weeks to completely rid the streets of, city officials have said.
Department of Transportation is responsible for clearing roughly 3,400 bus stops with shelters through a third-party contractor.Paul Martinka
As of Thursday morning, the DOT said JCDecaux had cleared 98% of the bus shelters – though nearly 200 311 complaints about bus shelter snow removal are still “in progress,” according to city data.
Complaints represent all five boroughs, including about 70 in both Manhattan and Brooklyn; 63 in Queens; 40 in the Bronx and 21 in Staten Island.
Of those, only about 160 complaints across the city have since been forwarded to the DOT’s contractor for snow removal operations.
A Brooklyn judge illegally moonlighting as an escrow lawyer helped defraud more than $11 million from investors and a major bank, lawsuits claim — then resigned when a watchdog began investigating.
Judge Edward Harold King, 71, is named as a defendant in a slew of lawsuits alleging he helped swipe the dough alongside a rotating cast of characters involved in a case with nearly identical claims — including former county party boss Frank Seddio, who wields huge influence over the judicial nominee process,
Former Judge Edward H. King was under investigation for fraud accusations, according to a judicial ethics board.
King’s resignation was announced Friday by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which said the judge had been under investigation for the fraud accusations as well as allegedly practicing law as a sitting judge, which is not allowed.
Rather than participate in the investigation, King resigned from the bench and agreed to never serve as a judge again — killing the probe.
No criminal investigation has been announced in connection to the allegations, but the SCJC has made referrals on its case to law enforcement in the past. The panel declined to comment further to The Post.
King was appointed to the bench in 2024. He did not reply to a Post request for comment.
“On or off the bench, a judge must respect and comply with the law and promote public confidence in the integrity of the judiciary,” said Robert Tembeckjian, head of the SCJC.
“The alarming allegations of financial impropriety against Judge King were so egregious as to warrant his permanent departure from the bench,” said Robert Tembeckjian, head of a state investigatory panel.HANS PENNINK
“The alarming allegations of financial impropriety against Judge King were so egregious as to warrant his permanent departure from the bench.”
King improperly served as an escrow agent while a full-time judge and “improperly” received escrow funds, refused to return the funds as required and transferred the funds to “unauthorized third parties,” the SCJC wrote of the allegations.
The claims mirror those in several lawsuits still facing King in state and federal court alleging he played a role in mishandling $11.8 million, accusing him and others of fraud, theft and racketeering.
Brooklyn powerbroker Frank Seddio appears in lawsuits involving the former judge.William C Lopez/New York Post
In one lawsuit, a Nassau county investor claims his efforts to have $7 million of his funds returned were denied and that the original escrow agent had transferred the funds to King, who then sent the money to another lawyer, Mark David Graubard.
Despite some money being returned to the Nassau investor, $1.8 million remains missing, the lawsuit claims, which seeks triple damages of $21 million.
“I could not understand how all of this has been happening — judges and lawyers are acting as if the law doesn’t apply,” said the investor’s lawyer, Ken Glassman.
Mark David Graubard, a main player in an escrow fraud suit closely followed by The Post, is also named in litigation involving King.Peter Senzamici
“It’s like these guys are like — as they used to say about John Gotti — the Teflon rip-off. Nothing sticks to them”
Another Nassau County lawsuit accuses King, plus Brooklyn reality investor Sam Sprei and Lakewood, NJ, resident Jonathan Rubin, of refusing to return $5 million supposedly held in escrow, and alleges they were operating a racketeering enterprise.
“As a result of the scheme, [victims] have lost tens of millions of dollars in funds which they placed into escrow and which the Defendants refuse to return to them,” the suit said.
Another lawsuit filed in federal court by TD Bank claims that King overdrew and failed to replenish his account by $1.9 million last February — an amount that would have been even higher if an $850,000 wire transfer to Sprei a day earlier hadn’t been cancelled.
The Post has reported extensively on one case accusing Seddio, Sprei, Graubard and Rubin of participating in or aiding a nearly identical $2 million escrow fraud scheme.
All have denied wrongdoing, with a rep for Seddio claiming he is “a target because of his high-profile standing in the community and his political leadership.”
