The Trump administration has canceled its contract with Moderna for the development of its bird flu vaccine, according to a Moderna press release.
In 2024, Moderna was awarded $176 million by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to complete the late-stage development and testing of its H5N1 mRNA vaccine against the H5N1 bird flu. Later in Jan. the HHS, under the Biden administration, awarded Moderna an additional $590 million for development of the vaccine.
The contract was terminated last week, by the Trump administration, due to safety concerns for mRNA technology.
"After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna's H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable," says HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon in a statement.
Bird flu’s growing threat in livestock and humans
The voided agreement follows rising fears about bird flu as the disease continues to spread among livestock in the U.S. As previously reported by ProFood World, bird flu has been detected in milk from dairy cattle.
In the past year, 70 people have been infected with bird flu. The majority of people with the virus have been farm workers due to the rapid spreading of bird flu among poultry flocks and cattle herds, Reuters reported.
