Bird Flu: US Invests $590 Million to Fast-Track Vaccine Development

A new bird flu vaccine could be on the horizon after the U.S. has invested approximately $590 million to accelerate its development, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Friday, a few days before Donald Trump was sworn in as president.

Pharmaceutical company Moderna has been granted the funds to work on developing mRNA-based influenza vaccines, including for the strain causing the bird flu outbreak.

Newsweek has contacted Moderna and the HHS via email outside of regular office hours.

Why It Matters

Avian influenza A (H5N1) has caused at least 67 human illnesses, and was associated with one death, amid widespread outbreaks in wild birds, poultry and dairy cows, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC maintains that the risk to public health is low as there has been no evidence that the virus is transmissible between humans; individuals have only gotten sick after exposure to infected animals. But scientists have warned that the more chances the virus has to infect humans, the more likely it is to mutate to be more contagious among us, which raises the risk of a possible pandemic.

What To Know

mRNA technology was used successfully during the COVID-19 pandemic; it allows scientists to quickly adapt vaccines to new virus strains.

HHS said the grant would allow Moderna to accelerate its development of an mRNA vaccine against bird flu that is well matched to strains currently circulating among cows and birds in the U.S.

Moderna's research would also expand the clinical data supporting the use of mRNA vaccines that HHS said could be needed if other influenza strains of concern were to emerge.

The money will be used to design and test another vaccine too, this time for H7N9—another form of bird flu, not the one behind the current U.S. outbreak—in a phase-three clinical study.

Moderna has said it will design up to four additional novel influenza vaccines and test for their preliminary safety and their effectiveness at generating an immune-system response, in phase-one clinical trials.

The company hopes this work will create the necessary background data to help them quickly develop an mRNA vaccine targeted to various influenza subtypes.

What People Are Saying

Then HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra in a statement: "Avian flu variants have proven to be particularly unpredictable and dangerous to humans in the past. That is why this response has been a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration and HHS.

"Accelerating the development of new vaccines will allow us to stay ahead and ensure that Americans have the tools they need to stay safe."

What's Next

The U.S. government under former President Joe Biden was under pressure to approve bird flu (H5N1) vaccines, especially since the first human death in the U.S.'s current outbreak was announced.

It remains to be seen how President Donald Trump's new administration will deal with the bird flu outbreak.

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