Vaccine maker Moderna recently said it hopes to sell a combined booster jab for infectious diseases such as COVID-19, influenza, and a common respiratory virus known as RSV.
A Politico report said that according to Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, the company is expecting to make the combined vaccine by 2023.
Speaking on the World Economic Forum panel, Bancel said the COVID-Flu vaccine would allow people to receive broad protection from illnesses resulting from respiratory viruses ahead of the infectious winter season, minus the need to get multiple injections.
Describing the vaccine project, the company CEO said their objective is to provide a single yearly booster so that they don't have compliance problems where people do not want to get injected twice to thrice each winter. He added that the best-case scenario would be the fall of next year.
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A vial of the Moderna vaccine is seen at an NHS Covid-19 vaccination center on December 16, 2021, near Ramsgate, United Kingdom. The Government is pushing the booster jab program as the country recorded its highest number of daily infections since the pandemic began.
Combined Booster Vaccine
In September 2021, Bancel told investors that Moderna was working on a booster vaccine that would combine its mRNA vaccine against COVID-19, a jab it was developing as protection from influenza, and possibly a single dose for respiratory syncytial virus or RSV treatment.
Currently, the Moderna COVID-19 booster is in phase three trials, explaining during the panel discussion that the flu vaccine under development, which also uses mRNA technology, needs to progress from "phase two to three trials in the second quarter."
As specified in the said report, investors sold off Moderna shares following a December update reported by Reuters that showed it produced antibody levels against all four influenza variants in an early-stage investigation that were not as effective in older individuals as an existing flu vaccine from Sanofi.
Bancel confirmed that the company plans to ship two to three billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines this year after delivering more than 800 million last year.
Moderna is consulting health officials on the COVID-19 vaccine doses' composition for inoculation this fall.
Vaccines Against All Present and Future COVID-19 Variants
According to an AFP News report via Yahoo! News, outside a vaccine particular to the new COVID-19 Omicron variant, which is fast becoming the world's dominant strain, laboratories are also tracking a vaccine that's working against all present and future coronavirus mutations.
According to the chief executive of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Richard Hatchett, some partners from the private sector pursue the initiative. The said coalition funds vaccine research and development.
Hatchett explained that would be the holy grail since "we don't want to be in position" where new variants that are yet to come are being chased.
More so, he added, they don't want to be in a position where they have to vaccinate everyone in the world every three to six months, or ideally, even yearly.
In connection to Hatchett's statement, top United States pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci said, "We don't want to get into the whack-a-mole" strategy towards each new COVID-19 strain, as it would be chased forever.
Report about Moderna's COVID-Flu vaccine is shown on Yahoo! Finance's YouTube video below:
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