On July 2, 2024, it was announced that top pharma and biotech company,Moderna, was awarded $175 million by the U.S. government for the development of avaccine for bird flu(H5N1) as a preventative measure.
This comes after an outbreak of the virus in multiple states that has affected both dairy cows and farm workers in the last four months. There’s no need to panic (yet) as the risk to humans is still very low and getting vaccinated against it is not recommended for the time being.
Bird Flu Outbreak 2024
In March 2024, the first outbreak of avian influenza was reported in dairy cattle. This went on to infect over 130 cattle herds and three humans in 12 U.S. states. Concerns have been raised about the virus spreading in the poultry and dairy sectors, and then to humans, kicking off another pandemic.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is, however, looking into whether vaccinating at least the farm workers might be a good idea—but this hasn’t been decided yet. If giving farm workers the jab is determined to be a good preventative measure, the doses could be ready in as early as a few weeks.
U.S. Government, Moderna Bird Flu Contract
The government contract, funded by the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, covers the developing and testing of Moderna’s bird flu vaccine in an attempt to prevent a COVID-19-like outbreak.
It also includes options to speed up the development timeline in case of an emergency, based on how many humans contract the disease, how contagious it proves to be, and its severity.
Moderna Bird Flu Vaccine
Just like the COVID-19 vaccines, the bird flu vaccine will be messenger RNA-based (mRNA) as this has a faster development process than that of conventional flu jabs.
Moderna’s bird flu vaccine is currently in the phase 1 trial process. Late-stage testing is due to start next year and will focus on overall safety and response. As of yet, there’s no news on how many of these vaccines Moderna will be able to make.
Moderna Preventative Bird Flu Vaccine
There’s not much other news on the topic, but the government has said it should have more information to release to the public soon. It also previously stated that it’s liaising with Pfizer on the same issue.
So far, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned of the dangers of consuming raw milk, and confirmed that lab tests have shown that the virus is inactivated in dairy products if they are pasteurized. The FDA is also actively testing retail daily products for bird flu traces.
Image Credit: Shutterstock/StanislavSukhin
