The United States government finalized a contract with Moderna on Tuesday, tasking the pharma company with developing a vaccine to treat the H5N1 bird flu in exchange for a $176 million payout. Research on the new vaccine, which will utilize the same mRNA technology behind the COVID-19 vaccines, comes after a multi-state bird flu outbreak in dairy cows, which federal health officials fear may soon lead to a jump in human cases.
According to Moderna, the funds granted by the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will be used to complete late-stage development of a pre-pandemic mRNA vaccine project, testing the product against the bird flu virus. However, as Health and Human Services officials emphasized, the vaccine will also be tested against other influenza strains if a different pandemic threat materializes during the testing period.
Late-stage clinical trials for the new vaccine will commence in 2025.
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The H5N1 strain of bird flu was first detected in dairy cattle in March when it was found to have infected 136 herds across 12 states. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three farmworkers have also been infected after close contact with the diseased cows. Health officials say the risk to public safety is relatively low and that no signs of human-to-human transmission have been observed so far.
However, precautionary steps are being taken over concern that the virus could mutate to more easily jump from person to person, which could set off a pandemic.
“Our job is to be prepared should that change,” said Assistant HHS Secretary Dawn O’Connell. “If you had asked any expert in 2018 what they expected to be the next pandemic, they would have said a highly virulent flu.”
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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