US health officials are reevaluating a $590 million contract for bird flu shots that the Biden administration awarded to Moderna Inc., people familiar with the matter said.
The review is part of a government push to examine spending on messenger RNA-based vaccines, the technology that powered Moderna’s Covid vaccine. The bird flu shot contract was awarded to Moderna in the Biden administration’s final days, sending the company’s stock up 13% in the two days following the Jan. 17 announcement.
Moderna said in January it was gearing up for a big final-stage trial of its vaccine, after successfully completing an early-stage trial last year. Without funding, that big trial may not happen.
The government also told Vaxart Inc. to stop much of the work on a federal contract for research on a new oral Covid vaccine, according to regulatory filings. The contract provided up to $453 million, according to government records.
Moderna has been under pressure to find new sources of revenue as its Covid vaccine sales fall sharply and it spends heavily on its pipeline. The contract was pushed through with some urgency, the people said, because of concerns that the Trump administration would be less willing to fund vaccine makers.
Kennedy has recently walked back some of his anti-vaccine rhetoric, but key vaccine meetings and public health campaigns overseen by agencies within HHS have reportedly been paused. Health workers within a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immunization unit were also recently laid off, Bloomberg reported last week.
Posted by John3262005
3 Comments
But they’re trying to spend $1 billion to vaccinate the chickens? That totally makes perfect fucking sense.
If they go ahead with it they are daring the universe to give us another pandemic lol
RFK Jr. is legit going to get thousands if not millions of people killed. Fuck that guy and fuck the GOP for empowering him.