The modern biotech giant is using what some experts call “21st century science” to create three new vaccines to protect against seasonal flu, HIV and the Nipah virus, respectively, the company announced on Monday.
Moderna – the company that created one of the two COVID-19 vaccines that were approved at the end of last year by the United States Food and Drug Administration for emergency use – said on Monday that it will pursue the development of three new vaccines: one for seasonal flu, one for HIV and one for the Nipah virus using mRNA technology, according to a press release.
As for the flu vaccine, in particular, Moderna said that “plans to explore potential combined vaccines against influenza, SARS-CoV-2, RSV and human metapneumovirus (hMPV).”
Phase 1 clinical trials for the flu vaccine program are due to begin later this year, Moderna said.
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The company’s potential vaccine, HIV, a virus that can lead to AIDS, is being developed in collaboration with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Moderna said, noting that Phase 1 clinical trials for this healthy vaccine is also expected to start this year.
Finally, the company is also exploring a vaccine to protect against the Nipah virus, “a zoonotic virus transmitted to humans by animals, contaminated food or by direct transmission from person to person and causes a range of diseases, including fatal encephalitis”, by Modern. . Outbreaks occurred mainly in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore.
“The challenging year of 2020 for the whole society has proved to be an extraordinary proof-of-concept period for Moderna,” Moderna CEO, Stéphane Bancel, said in a statement.
“Even though it has shown that our mRNA-based vaccine can prevent COVID-19, it encouraged us to pursue more ambitious development programs within our prophylactic vaccine modality,” he added.
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Unlike conventional vaccines, which are produced by the growth of weakened forms of a virus in chicken eggs or certain mammalian cells in a laboratory, RNA vaccines require only the pathogen’s genetic code; they do not use an active or dormant virus.
This new gene-based technology has been shown to be effective in the development of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, in addition to the one created by Moderna. The success seen with this technology in creating an effective vaccine against the new virus has given scientists hope that the same technology can be used to fight other viral diseases, as Moderna is trying to do, with some experts saying the technology it could even be used to fight cancer.
For a basic overview of the differences between conventional vaccines and those made with RNA technology, you can read more here.