TUESDAY, July 8, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. health officials announced Tuesday that the federal government will pay Moderna $176 million to speed development of a pandemic flu vaccine based on mRNA technology.
Such a vaccine could be used to treat bird flu in people, as concern grows about H5N1 cases spreading in dairy cows across the country, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) noted.
“We have successfully taken lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and used them to better prepare for future public health crises. As part of that, we continue to develop new vaccines and other tools to help address influenza and bolster our pandemic response capabilities,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a news release announcing the investment. “The Biden-Harris Administration won’t stop until we have everything we need to prepare for pandemics and other public health emergencies that impact the American public.
” Moderna already has a bird flu vaccine in early-stage testing that uses the same mRNA technology that allowed a rapid rollout of COVID vaccines, the Associated Press reported. Some of the new HHS funds will go toward a late-stage trial next year if early results with Moderna's mRNA-based flu vaccine are positive. “The award made today is part of our longstanding commitment to strengthen our preparedness for pandemic influenza,” Dawn O’Connell , assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said in the HHS news release.
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