US CANCELS MORE THAN $700 MILLION FUNDING FOR MODERNA BIRD FLU VACCINE – Shares of Moderna were flat in after-market trading
The Trump administration has cancelled a contract awarded to Moderna for the late-stage development of its bird flu vaccine for humans, as well as the right to purchase shots, the drugmaker announced on Wednesday.
Shares of Moderna were flat in after-market trading.
Moderna in January was awarded $590 million by the Biden administration to advance the development of its bird flu vaccine and support the expansion of clinical studies for up to five additional subtypes of pandemic influenza.
This was in addition to $176 million awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last year to complete the late-stage development and testing of a pre-pandemic mRNA-based vaccine against the H5N1 avian influenza.
HHS told reporters earlier this year that it was reviewing agreements made by the Biden administration for vaccine production.
An HHS spokesperson said that after a comprehensive internal review, the agency had determined that the project did not meet the scientific standards or safety expectations required for continued federal investment.
Bird flu has infected 70 people, most of them farm workers, over the past year.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has questioned the use of vaccines and earlier this year drew censure from some in the U.S. Congress after he suggested in a television interview that poultry farmers should let the bird flu spread unchecked through their flocks to study chickens who did not contract it.
