The U.S. government has awarded Boston-based pharmaceutical company Moderna (MRNA) $590 million U.S. in new money to speed-up development of a vaccine against bird flu.
The administration of outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden allocated the money to help America prepare for a potential pandemic involving H5N1 avian influenza, commonly known as “bird flu.”
The award is the latest investment that the U.S. government is making in a bird flu vaccine. It previously awarded Moderna $176 million U.S. to quickly develop a vaccine against the illness.
The U.S. government’s total funding for Moderna’s bird flu vaccine now stands at $766 million U.S., which is near the $995 million U.S. spent on the company’s Covid-19 vaccine in 2020.
Analysts say the spending shows that lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are taking a possible bird flu pandemic seriously.
More than 100 million birds in domestic U.S. flocks, mostly egg-laying hens and turkeys being raised for meat, have died from bird flu since 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
To date, there have been 67 confirmed human cases of the disease in the U.S., and one death.
Government funding for a bird flu vaccine comes at a good time for Moderna, which has seen its sales drop off sharply as the Covid-19 pandemic has waned.
Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine is the only medication that the company has successfully commercialized, though it has several other vaccines in various stages of development.
Moderna has said that it is preparing to advance a bird flu vaccine into a Phase 3 clinical trial, although the timeline has not been made public.
The stock of Moderna has declined 66% over the last year and is currently trading at $34.06 U.S. per share.
However, the stock is up 5% in premarket trading on Jan. 20 following news of the government funding.
