Shares of Moderna are up more than 4% in the New York premarket trading session following a report by the Financial Times that the US government is preparing to “bankroll a late-stage trial of Moderna’s mRNA pandemic bird flu vaccine.” H5N1 is spreading across the US ahead of the November presidential elections, and some prominent doctors have already warned about university labs experimenting with H5N1 gain-of-function.
Sources familiar with the talks between Moderna and the government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, known as Barda, say federal funding could be allocated to the pharma company as early as next month.
“It is expected to total several tens of millions of dollars, and could be accompanied by a commitment to procure doses if the phase-three trials are successful,” they said.
Moderna has previously said it was trialing H5N1 flu vaccines, with interim data expected soon.
Moderna is currently testing an H5N1 vaccine, from the 2.3.4.4b subset of viruses, in people. That trial began last summer.
But the trial’s listing in the Clinicaltrials.gov database is cagey about the dosages Moderna is testing, calling them simply dose number 1, 2 and 3. -Statnews
As of Wednesday, the US Department of Agriculture has detected 67 dairy cow herds with H5N1 infections in nine states: Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Michigan, Idaho, North Carolina, South Dakota, Ohio, and Colorado.
The ongoing outbreak is linked to dairy cattle. Only two H5N1 cases have been detected among humans. The first was in April, with a Texas dairy worker, and the second was from a Michigan dairy farm last week. Both had mild infections and have since recovered.
FT also said the federal government is in talks with Pfizer about an mRNA vaccine targeting H5N1.
Hellbound and Down 