Hong Kong, October 9, 2026: Everest Medicines (1952.HK) has named Lakshmi Srinivasan, PhD, as Senior Vice President, Head of Translational Medicine, and Brandon Coder, PhD, as Vice President, Translational Sciences & Discovery, both of whom previously held leadership roles in mRNA cancer vaccine research at Moderna.
The appointments are intended to bolster Everest Medicines’ global research and development capabilities in mRNA therapeutics and support the advancement of its proprietary mRNA platform and pipeline. Srinivasan and Coder will oversee clinical development of Everest’s mRNA programs and work to expand the company’s presence in the United States, in alignment with its global mRNA R&D strategy, while collaborating closely with the China R&D team.
Leadership backgrounds and prior roles
Dr. Srinivasan, an immunologist with 20 years of experience in immuno-oncology therapeutics, previously served as Executive Director and Head of Oncology Translational Medicine at Moderna Therapeutics from 2023 to 2025. Her career includes leadership positions at Repertoire Immune Medicines, Neon Therapeutics (later acquired by BioNTech), and Sanofi Oncology. She has contributed to the clinical translation of personalized neoantigen vaccines and has authored several publications, including as corresponding author on Phase 1b studies of NEO-PV-01 in Cell (2020) and Cancer Cell (2022), and as co-author on Moderna’s intismeran autogene (mRNA-4157/V940) studies published in Cancer Discovery (2024) and JCO Oncology Advances (2026).
Dr. Coder brings over 11 years of industry experience in T cell immunotherapies, cancer vaccines, mRNA/LNP platform technology, and in vivo CAR therapies. At Moderna, he served as Associate Scientific Director of Cancer Vaccine Research from 2019 to 2025 and was research and global pharmacology lead for intismeran autogene (mRNA-4157/V940). He also co-invented and led the development of shared-antigen discovery and vaccine design frameworks for mRNA-4359 and mRNA-4106, contributed to nine IND submissions, and previously worked as Associate Director of Immuno-Oncology Research at Advaxis Immunotherapies.
Recent mRNA cancer vaccine developments
Both Srinivasan and Coder contributed to Moderna’s mRNA cancer vaccine programs, including mRNA-4157/V940, which in August 2026, in combination with Keytruda, met the primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival and the key secondary endpoint of distant metastasis-free survival in the Phase 3 INTerpath-001 study. This marked the first positive Phase 3 result for an individualized neoantigen therapy and for an mRNA-based cancer therapy.
Everest’s mRNA pipeline and clinical progress
Everest Medicines is advancing several mRNA oncology therapeutic vaccine and in vivo CAR-T programs using its proprietary AI+mRNA platform. EVM16, a personalized mRNA therapeutic cancer vaccine, has completed its first-in-human clinical data readout, showing favorable safety, robust immunogenicity, and promising preliminary efficacy, with selected data presented at the 2026 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting. An investigator-initiated Phase 1b trial is planned for Q4 2026, with new indication expansion cohorts and a planned IND application to the U.S. FDA in the first half of 2027.
EVM14, an off-the-shelf tumor-associated antigen (TAA) mRNA cancer vaccine, received IND clearance from the U.S. FDA and China’s National Medical Products Administration in 2025, with Phase 1 monotherapy dose-escalation study completion expected in Q1 2027. EVM18, an in vivo CAR-T therapy, has started an IIT study in autoimmune diseases, with global IND filing underway. EVM15, an off-the-shelf immunomodulatory cancer vaccine, achieved clinical proof of concept in preclinical studies in 2025, with IND application preparations ongoing for 2026.
Company statement on appointments
Yifang Wu, Chairman of the Board of Everest Medicines, said the appointments of Dr. Srinivasan and Dr. Coder reflect the company’s commitment to strengthening its global mRNA R&D capabilities and advancing its proprietary mRNA platform and pipeline.
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