The US Department of Health and Human Services has awarded Moderna approximately $590 million to speed up the development of an mRNA-based bird flu vaccine. The funding will support clinical studies for five additional subtypes of pandemic influenza, expanding the data on mRNA vaccines that may be needed if other strains emerge with pandemic potential. This comes as there have been 67 confirmed human bird flu cases in the US since April 2024, including one reported death in Louisiana. The government has already stockpiled two bird flu vaccine candidates using traditional technology, which will be available in 10 million doses by early 2025.
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/moderna-mrna-bird-flu-vaccine-award/story?id=117813010