Vaccine makers ready to test bird flu vaccine in humans

March 20, 2023 — Three major vaccine makers say they can easily make hundreds of millions of bird flu vaccines for humans if the H5N1 flu virus makes the leap to infect people.

The three companies are GSK, Moderna and CSL Seqirus, whose representatives told Reuters that vaccines are heading for human testing. Most of the plans that could be ready quickly are already reserved for rich countries.

“We could potentially have a much worse problem with vaccine hoarding and vaccine nationalism during an influenza epidemic than what we have seen with COVID,” said Richard Hatchett, MD, executive director of the Coalition for Epidemic. Preparedness Innovations.

CDC says risk of bird flu becoming a public health concern stay weak. But the duration of this bird flu epidemic and the reported jumps from birds to mammals like foxes, mink and seals are concerning, scientists say.

“What we see more generally with outbreaks in animals is that they surface and then go away, usually within a season,” said Johns Hopkins School of Public Health epidemiologist and environmental microbiologist Meghan Frost Davis, DVM, PhD. “What’s unusual about this one is that it’s been around for a while, starting in 2021, with various sub-strains developing. It has been persistent and widespread, and has now affected an estimated 58 million birds in the United States and more worldwide.

Vaccine manufacturers’ preparations for a possible human H5N1 endemic or pandemic are the latest action in response to the bird flu epidemic, which so far has been dealt with by culling flocks.

Last month, the Biden administration announced that the United States would test a vaccine for commercial poultry. The CDC is also asking commercial lab test makers to consider developing tests for H5N1, similar to coronavirus tests, The New York Times reported.