Armenian President Armen Sarkissian today spoke with Noubar Afeyan, founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a US-based biotech incubator that currently has nine entities working on various ways to fight Covid-19.

The two, according to a statement released by Sarkissian’s office, spoke about the Covid-19 situation in Armenia and recent medical advances made by Moderna Therapeutics, one of Flagship Pioneering’s portfolio holdings.

“The most high-profile of Flagship’s portfolio companies’ efforts, however, is that of Moderna Therapeutics, whose experimental COVID-19 vaccine candidate—made using the company’s messenger RNA platform technology—is out front in the global pharma race. On Monday, the Cambridge-based biotech reported an early success: The first 45 volunteers who had received the company’s vaccine all developed antibodies to the virus,” writes Erika Fry in a May 19 Fortune article.

Sarkissian stressed the need to work together to overcome the situation, noting that only joint efforts would succeed.

In the Fortune article, Afeyan, who was born in Lebanon and left with his family during its civil war, credits his immigrant background for his success.

Photo (from left): Noubar Afeyan, Armen Sarkissian