The Biden administration will pay $176 million to Moderna Inc. to develop an “mRNA-based pandemic influenza vaccine,” with health officials citing “lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announcement The big-ticket contract was awarded through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority’s (BARDA) new Rapid Response Partnership Vehicle (RRPV) consortium, the company announced Tuesday.
Managed by Advanced Technology International (ATI), the RRPV is a 10-year, multi-purpose partnership designed to support advanced research and development of medical tools, including vaccines.
Moderna is already in the early stages of producing an avian flu vaccine using the same mRNA technology as past coronavirus vaccines, but Health and Human Services officials said the new funding will help the company “further establish pandemic influenza vaccine capacity.”
“The U.S. government is now using its investments to [ensure] “This will result in cost parity for American taxpayers in the future,” the press release noted.
“We have successfully used lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to prepare for future public health crises, including by addressing influenza and continuing to develop new vaccines and other tools to strengthen our pandemic response capacity,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who was nominated by President Joe Biden shortly after taking office in 2021.
“Importantly, we are conducting this research in partnership with some of the nation’s leading scientists and clinicians, and the Biden-Harris Administration will not stop until we have everything we need to prepare for any pandemic or other public health emergency that affects the American people,” Becerra added.
The Department of Health noted that the funding would include options for a large-scale pandemic response, as well as the ability to quickly pivot if needed “to address other threats, such as emerging infectious diseases.”
“The awards presented today are part of our longstanding commitment to strengthening pandemic influenza preparedness,” said Dawn O’Connell, HHS Under Secretary for Preparedness and Response Programs.
“Adding this technology to our pandemic influenza preparedness toolkit will improve our ability to respond nimbly and rapidly to circulating strains and their potential variants,” she added.
In June, Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Said “It is not a question of if an avian influenza pandemic will occur and cause “significant mortality” in humans, but rather when.”
Redfield, a virologist who was appointed to lead the CDC by former President Donald Trump in 2018, made the significant prediction during an appearance on NewsNation.
Bird flu, also known as the H5N1 virus, has a “probably 25 to 50 per cent mortality rate” in humans, doctors have warned.
“Unfortunately, when avian flu infects humans, the mortality rate is quite high — probably between 25 and 50 percent — so it becomes quite a complicated situation,” he explained.
The movement for flu vaccine options began when avian flu birds Mammals, and even Human Farm Workers People who have come into contact with infected animals.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the first person to die from the virus was a 59-year-old Mexican man who was infected in April. Said.
However, the man’s relatives said he had “no history of contact with poultry or other animals”, WHO noted.
