Moderna Develops A Combination Vaccine To Strengthen COVID-19 With Flu Vaccine

Moderna vaccine illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Senior Airman Eugene Oliver)

JAKARTA - COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna Inc. said Thursday it is developing a single vaccine that combines a booster against COVID-19 with its experimental flu vaccine.

The company hopes to eventually add vaccines it is working on for respiratory viruses (RSV) and other respiratory diseases as annual injections.

"We believe this is a huge opportunity that lies ahead of us if we can bring to market a high-efficacy pan-respiratory annual booster", Moderna Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel said during a presentation to investors, cited from Reuters, September 10.

"We believe Moderna can be the first to market this important new opportunity". The company is currently conducting clinical trials for the RSV vaccine in older adults.

Moderna is known to already have several influenza vaccine candidates in development. The new vaccine combines the furthest experimental flu shot along with its COVID-19 vaccine.

Oppenheimer & Co analyst Hartaj Singh said news of a combination vaccine clinical trial likely to start over the next 6-12 months was a positive surprise for investors.

"The question is, once the pandemic is over, what is the total sales of the vaccine and how much can Moderna expand that market", Singh said.

Moderna and Pfizer Inc. and German vaccine partner BioNTech SE are expected to rake in billions of dollars from a COVID-19 booster vaccine, say healthcare analysts and investors.

In addition to the ongoing development, Moderna is also providing an update on an ongoing mid-stage trial testing its official COVID-19 vaccine in children aged 6 months to 11 years. It is testing an injection dose of 50 micrograms in a pediatric trial involving 4.000 children.

The Moderna vaccine, which received emergency use authorization for two 100-microgram doses for people 18 years and older in the United States (US) in December, is currently being reviewed by the FDA for use in adolescents.

Moderna said dose selection studies for different age groups, such as 2 years to less than 6 years, and 6 months to under 2 years, are still ongoing.

In addition to Moderna, Novavax Inc. which does not yet have US clearance for a COVID-19 vaccine, said on Wednesday it had begun early-stage studies to test a combination flu and COVID-19 vaccine.