The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that through BARDA, part of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), it will provide around $176 million to Moderna to support the development of an mRNA-based pandemic influenza vaccine. The award will allow Moderna to establish additional pandemic influenza vaccine response capability, leveraging existing US domestic large-scale commercial mRNA-based manufacturing platforms and ongoing seasonal influenza vaccine development. Furthermore, ASPR has secured a fair pricing agreement to ensure “enduring equitable access” to vaccines.
Learning from COVID-19
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra stated that the team has “successfully taken lessons learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic” to “better prepare for future public health crises”. This includes the continued development of vaccines and “other tools” to “help address influenza and bolster our pandemic response capabilities”.
“Importantly, we are doing this work in partnership with some of the nation’s leading scientists and clinicians. 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’s technology
Moderna’s influenza vaccine candidate uses the mRNA technology that was “leveraged successfully” during the COVID-19 response.
“mRNA vaccines have the potential to complement traditional vaccine technologies during a pandemic influenza emergency response.”
Moderna will prepare materials and conduct clinical trials to collect data for FDA licensure and potential scale-up. HHS believes that a successful mRNA-based licensed pandemic influenza vaccine could “further improve response timelines” if a new virus strain emerged and caused a pandemic.
Technology in the toolkit
Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Dawn O’Connell, stated that the award is part of a “longstanding commitment to strengthen our preparedness for pandemic influenza”.
“Adding this technology to our pandemic flu toolkit enhances our ability to be nimble and quick against the circulating strains and their potential variants.”
Moderna’s CEO Stéphane Bancel is “pleased to continue our collaboration with BARDA” as his organisation seeks to “expedite our development efforts for mRNA-based pandemic influenza vaccines”.
“mRNA vaccine technology offers advantages in efficacy, speed of development, and production scalability and reliability in addressing infectious disease outbreaks, as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Bancel hopes to “support the global public health community in preparedness against potential outbreaks”.
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