Moderna announced on Thursday that it is developing a one-dose vaccine booster shot that would protect people against COVID-19 and the seasonal flu.
Moderna to mix COVID, flu vaccines
The company said the new vaccine — called mRNA-1073 — mixes the current COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna and a flu shot that’s still being developed.
- “Today we are announcing the first step in our novel respiratory vaccine program with the development of a single dose vaccine that combines a booster against COVID-19 and a booster against flu,” CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement. “We are making progress on enrolling patients in our rare disease programs, and we are fully enrolled in our personalized cancer vaccine trial. We believe this is just the beginning of a new age of information-based medicines.”
- Moderna said it is developing a vaccine for the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), too.
Novavax creates single COVID, flu vaccine
The news comes one day after COVID-19 vaccine developer Novavax said it had started a trial for a single shot that would combine flu and COVID-9 vaccines, too, Reuters reports.
The participants in the trial will be given the mixed shot of the NVX-CoV2373 COVID-19 vaccine and the NanoFlu influenza vaccines, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
- “Combination of these two vaccines ... may lead to greater efficiencies for the health care system and achieve high levels of protection against COVID-19 and influenza with a single regimen,” Gregory Glenn, president of research and development at Novavax, said in a statement, according to Reuters.