Influenza
The funding, which follows the $176 million the government awarded Moderna in June 2024, aims to get mRNA vaccines ready before bird flu strains currently circulating in the wild and on farms can potentially cause human outbreaks.
Novavax’s shared jumped 12% in pre-market trading on the news.
The companies’ late-stage stumble could allow Moderna to widen its lead, with its mRNA-based combination vaccine eliciting superior immune responses against COVID-19 and three influenza strains.
As part of a major reorganization, Vir Biotechnology has discontinued the bulk of its virology work and pivoted to cancer in an exclusive licensing deal with Sanofi.
Moderna’s combination vaccine candidate for COVID-19 and influenza outperformed licensed vaccines in older adults, according to late-stage results reported on Monday.
Moderna has entered into a development and commercialization funding agreement with asset management firm Blackstone Life Sciences to help advance its pipeline of flu vaccine candidates.
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