Moderna’s first seasonal flu vaccine slides into clinic as pharmaceutical giants crowd mRNA

Now that the mRNA technology has FDA backing, Moderna has moved on to its next act, a vaccine to improve on the annual flu shot, as many Big Pharma giants breathe biotech’s neck.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company, made famous by the success of its COVID-19 vaccine, has administered the first patient in a phase 1/2 clinical trial for a new vaccine against seasonal influenza.

Moderna is developing mRNA-1010 to protect against common strains of influenza, as recommended by the World Health Organization. The company hopes to improve on traditional influenza vaccines which are typically 40-60% effective. Most of these injections are developed using eggs, which Moderna says can cause unintended changes in the vaccine virus. The strains to use in vaccines are also decided six to nine months in advance, which means a lot of guesswork as to which strain might be dominant during flu season.

The mRNA-1010 clinical trial will eventually recruit 180 healthy adults to test the vaccine’s safety, patient response and efficacy.

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Moderna walks into the clinic surrounded by giants of all stripes – from Sanofi to Pfizer to GlaxoSmithKline – who believe with the success of COVID-19 vaccines, that mRNA is a new frontier for vaccine development.

In collaboration with Translate Bio, Sanofi claimed to have started the first human attempt of a seasonal mRNA flu vaccine candidate in June, beating Moderna and other rivals at the clinic.

The technology works by teaching a patient’s cells to make a protein that can trigger an immune response in the body and stimulate the creation of antibodies and therefore protection against a virus. While the clearance of COVID-19 vaccines marked the first time that mRNA was cleared by regulators, the technology has been studied for decades.

Moderna has already used mRNA vaccines in trials, albeit targeting specific influenza strains: in 2019, it dropped the first data from several Phase 1 tests showing that its mRNA vaccines against the H10N8 and H7N9 influenza viruses “were well tolerated and elicited robust immune responses. “

This latest attempt is broader by using a seasonal approach that targets multiple strains, including influenza A H1N1, H3N2 and influenza B Yamagata and Victoria.

Pfizer, which developed a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine that beat Moderna in the U.S. market last year, sees mRNA becoming a big part of the pharmaceutical giant’s future. The company believes the 95% efficacy seen with the COVID-19 vaccine could translate into a major improvement in the annual flu vaccine.

Last month, Sanofi announced plans to dedicate $ 476 million per year to a center of excellence dedicated to mRNA vaccines with the goal of becoming a leader in the development of mRNA vaccines against a wide range of infectious diseases.

RELATED: Sanofi Pledges $ 476 Million Per Year in mRNA Vaccination Center in Race to Extend Technology Beyond COVID-19

And then there’s GSK, which is work with CureVac on five clinical-phase mRNA vaccines in a $ 294 million deal.

In addition to influenza, Moderna is developing vaccines against HIV, respiratory syncytial virus and others.

Biotechnology is also considering combining certain vaccines into a single injection. Other companies have beaten them there too, like Novavax, which is already testing a vaccine against COVID influenza in animals.

“Combined respiratory vaccines are an important pillar of our overall mRNA vaccine strategy,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. “Our vision is to develop a combined mRNA vaccine so that people can be injected each fall for highly effective protection against the most problematic respiratory viruses. “