A sign marks an entrance to a Moderna building in Cambridge, Mass., on May 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes, File)
The Department of Health and Human Services is pulling millions of dollars it had committed to give Moderna to aid the effort to develop a vaccine to combat the bird flu in humans, the company announced Wednesday.
Under President Joe Biden, HHS had announced its intent last summer to award $176 million and then a subsequent $590 million in January to Moderna amid an outbreak of bird flu in dairy cattle. The virus has infected 70 people since last year, and federal health officials had previously described the effort as critical to strengthening the country’s pandemic preparedness.
The company was developing vaccines using messenger RNA – the same technology used in the most commonly administered coronavirus vaccines hailed as a major medical achievement during the first Trump administration. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been critical of mRNA vaccines, and this week he announced that the coronavirus shots would no longer be recommended for healthy children and healthy pregnant women. The termination reflects ongoing tensions between Kennedy and medical experts who say the vaccines have been proved to be safe and effective.
On Wednesday, Moderna announced that it had received positive interim data about immune response and safety from an early-stage clinical trial of roughly 300 healthy adults ages 18 and older. The move by HHS throws the future of the effort into uncertainty, and the company said it will explore alternatives for late-stage development and manufacturing of the vaccine.
“These clinical data in pandemic influenza underscore the critical role mRNA technology has played as a countermeasure to emerging health threats,” Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO, said in a statement touting the interim data on the bird flu vaccine.
In a statement, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the decision was made after a “rigorous review.”
“This is not simply about efficacy – it’s about safety, integrity, and trust,” Nixon said. “The reality is that mRNA technology remains under-tested, and we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last administration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public.”
Since the H5N1 outbreak began in dairy cattle in spring 2024, more than 1,000 herds have been infected in 17 states, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. The virus, widespread in wild birds, has caused outbreaks in poultry farms and also spilled over into dozens of other animals, including cats.
At least 70 people, mostly farm workers, have been infected, but most had mild illness and recovered.
A Louisiana man older than 65 with underlying medical conditions became the first person to die of bird flu in January after exposure to backyard poultry flocks. But no human cases have been reported in recent months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
