Biden administration gives $176 million to Moderna for bird flu vaccine

The company on Tuesday said it had received the money from the administration to develop a vaccine for humans to prevent them from contracting avian influenza. The company’s goal is to develop an mRNA-based vaccine ahead of any potential outbreaks of the disease, according to Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel.

What are mRNA-based vaccines? Vaccines that are mRNA-based introduce a protein found in the membrane of the targeted virus into the recipient’s body, according to the National Library of Medicine. The recipient’s body then learns that protein is a foreign substance and develops antibodies to target it. Getting an mRNA vaccine does not expose someone to a weakened form of the virus and the recipient can’t contract the virus from the vaccine, the National Library of Medicine said. Many vaccines designed to target the COVID-19 virus were mRNA-based, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Has the company done any sort of work on a vaccine like this previously? Moderna completed the first two phases of a three-phase study last year that tested a vaccine against two strains of avian influenza. It is still waiting on results from the study, which will inform its plans for phase 3 of the study.

Will the company be able to develop this vaccine? Moderna describes itself as an industry leader in developing mRNA vaccines and claimed credit for quickly developing a COVID-19 vaccine. But the company cautioned that all its statements on the matter in a press release it issued Tuesday were forward-looking and did not qualify as guarantees of success. It might be unable to succeed in developing the vaccine for a variety of reasons, Moderna admitted.

Dig deeper: Read Emma Freire’s report in WORLD Magazine about how the COVID-19 vaccines hurt many people they should have helped.