Moderna announced on Wednesday that it dosed the first participants in its Phase I/II clinical trial of “mRNA-1010” – the company’s mRNA seasonal flu vaccine candidate.
The company developed one of the world’s first mRNA vaccines. The only other one was developed by Pfizer. Israel used Moderna’s mRNA coronavirus vaccine to vaccinate more than 100,000 Palestinians who work in Israel. Most Israelis are vaccinated with Pfizer.
The vast majority of the 297 million COVID-19 shots distributed in America were mRNA – either Moderna or Pfizer.
The flu vaccine trial is meant to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity of the vaccine, the company said in a release. It is testing the vaccine in healthy adults over the age of 18 living in the United States. In total, some 180 people are expected to participate in the trial.
This is the company’s first mRNA seasonal flu vaccine trial.
“We expect that our seasonal influenza vaccine candidates will be an important component of our future combination respiratory vaccines,” said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel in a statement. “Respiratory combination vaccines are an important pillar of our overall mRNA vaccine strategy. We believe that the advantages of mRNA vaccines include the ability to combine different antigens to protect against multiple viruses and the ability to rapidly respond to the evolution of respiratory viruses, such as influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and RSV.”
RSV is Respiratory Syncytial Virus. It usually strikes children and involves a runny nose, decrease in appetite, coughing, sneezing and fever.
The World Health Organization has estimated that around 3-5 million people experience severe cases of the flu each year worldwide. Some years, as many as 650,000 people have died from the virus. In Israel, a few dozen people die every year from flu complications, according to reports.
“Our vision is to develop an mRNA combination vaccine so that people can get one shot each fall for high efficacy protection against the most problematic respiratory viruses,” Bancel said. “We look forward to advancing our core modality of prophylactic mRNA vaccines so that we can continue to make an impact on global public health.”