U.S. awards Moderna $590 million to hurry up growth of chicken flu vaccine : NPR

The U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers introduced it would award $590 million to Moderna to speed up the event of influenza vaccines, together with to guard towards chicken flu.

“Accelerating the event of latest vaccines will permit us to remain forward and be certain that People have the instruments they should keep protected,” outgoing HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra mentioned in a assertion on Friday.

The cash will go to Moderna, the Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical firm that beforehand developed a COVID-19 vaccine. Since 2023, Moderna has been working to create a “pandemic influenza vaccine” which might assist defend towards sure viruses, together with the H5N1 chicken flu.

The brand new funds construct on the $176 million that HHS gave to Moderna final July. On Friday, Moderna mentioned the extra funding will assist pay for late-stage growth, licensure of the vaccines and increasing medical research for extra subtypes of pandemic influenza to forestall different potential public well being emergencies.

Over the previous a number of months, chicken flu has unfold quickly all through the U.S.

It has largely contaminated livestock and different mammals, however there have been at the very least 67 confirmed human circumstances to this point, together with one loss of life in Louisiana, in keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. California at the moment accounts for greater than half of human infections.

The general public well being threat stays low, however HHS Secretary Becerra mentioned chicken flu variants have confirmed to be unpredictable, which is why the virus is a prime precedence for the federal authorities.

On Thursday, the CDC issued an alert urging hospitals to hurry up efforts to check individuals who they think have an an infection.