Moderna is to receive $176 million from the US government for the development of an mRNA-based pandemic influenza vaccine.
The funding has been made available through the Rapid Response Partnership Vehicle (RRPV) consortium, a 10-year program designed to support advanced research and development of medical countermeasures such as vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics by creating partnerships with industry fostering innovation and promoting collaboration.
The funding will allow Moderna to further develop pandemic influenza vaccine response capability, building on existing US commercial mRNA-based manufacturing platforms, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
A fair pricing agreement has also been reached, which the US government said will ensure ‘enduring equitable access to vaccines.’
HSS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement: ‘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.’
Moderna’s influenza vaccine candidate uses mRNA technology developed during the pandemic, and was one of the first two Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorised Covid-19 vaccines.
During 2003, the US government's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) issued a request to Moderna, and other companies, for proposals to develop mRNA vaccines in preparation for potential public health emergencies caused by viruses such as H5N1, avian influenza otherwise known as bird flu.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has stressed that the risk to general human health from H5N1 is still low.
Moderna will conduct research and trials to collect safety and immunogenicity data to support licensing by the FDA, and potential scale-up in response to a future public health emergency.
If successfully developed, an mRNA-based licensed pandemic influenza vaccine could further improve response timelines should a new virus strain emerge and cause a pandemic, as happened with H1N1 in 2009, HSS said.
This development in the US follows on from news, last month, that the European Commission has signed a joint procurement framework contract with CSL Seqirus UK, for the supply of 665,000 pre-pandemic doses of zoonotic influenza vaccine. The vaccine is intended for people, such as poultry farmers and vets, who are most exposed to potential transfer of avian influenza from birds or animals.
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