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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will grant $590 million to Moderna to continue development of an avian flu vaccine, the pharmaceutical company announced Friday.
In 2023, Moderna launched a study of a “pandemic flu vaccine” to protect against the H5 and H7 avian flu viruses. In July, the company received $176 million from HHS for its vaccination efforts. Moderna plans to advance mRNA vaccine research toward a phase 3 trial after receiving positive results in previous phases, which it plans to present at a scientific conference in the near future.
“Avian flu variants have proven to be particularly unpredictable and dangerous to humans in the past. That’s why this response has been a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration and HHS,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement Friday. “Accelerating the development of new vaccines will help us stay ahead of the curve and ensure Americans have the tools they need to stay safe.”
Avian flu, or bird flu, is a general term for several types of flu that normally infect birds. The H5N1 virus has caused concern among health officials because it has sickened dozens of people in the United States in recent months; the first human death from a severe case of the virus was reported in Louisiana this month.
“The project will provide additional support for the advanced development and licensure of pre-pandemic mRNA-based vaccines. The agreement will also support the expansion of clinical studies of up to five additional subtypes of pandemic influenza,” Moderna said in a statement Friday.
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The United States has H5 vaccines in its strategic national stockpile, but they are made with older technology.
Separately, the Biden administration announced this month that it would invest more than $300 million to help monitor bird flu and prepare for its possible spread. That money would be spent on programs focused on hospital preparedness, increased testing and surveillance, and awareness of emerging pathogens.
Most recent transmission of H5N1 has occurred among animals, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still considers the risk of avian flu to the general public to be low, with no evidence of human-to-human spread. . But the Biden administration has stressed the importance of continued collaboration among stakeholders to “protect human health, animal health, and food safety.”
CNN’s Meg Tirrell contributed to this report.