The U.S. government has awarded Moderna $176 million to advance the development of its avian flu vaccine, the company said Tuesday, amid growing concerns over a multistate outbreak of the H5N1 virus in dairy cattle and the infections of three dairy workers since March.
Funds from the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority will be used to complete the development and late-stage testing of a pre-pandemic mRNA vaccine against avian influenza H5N1.
U.S. officials told reporters that late-stage trials will begin in 2025, depending on results expected in the coming weeks from Moderna’s Phase 1 trial. The late-stage trial will likely focus on safety and immune response.
The contract includes options to accelerate development timelines if needed, based on increasing human cases, severity of cases, or human-to-human transmission of the virus.
It’s too early to say how many doses Moderna will be able to produce, said Robert Johnson, director of the medical countermeasures program at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In March, U.S. authorities reported the first outbreak of the H5N1 virus in dairy cattle, which has since infected more than 130 dairy farms in 12 U.S. states.
Scientists fear that exposure to the virus in poultry and dairy operations could increase the risk that the virus will mutate and gain the ability to spread easily between people, starting a pandemic.
The risk of bird flu to the general public remains low, and vaccination is not currently recommended for any segment of the population, Dawn O’Connell, deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told reporters.
Source: Terra
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