Moderna Gets $750 Million to Develop Flu Vaccine

Moderna recently entered into a development and commercialization funding agreement with Blackstone Life Sciences to advance the company’s flu program. As part of the agreement, Blackstone will fund up to $750 million with a return based on cumulative commercial milestones and low-single digit royalties.

Influenza leads to 3-5 million severe cases of flu and 290,000-650,000 flu-related respiratory deaths annually worldwide. Two main types of influenza viruses (A and B) cause seasonal flu epidemics, and the influenza A viruses lead to most flu-related hospitalization in older adults.

Moderna currently has several seasonal flu vaccine candidates in clinical development. Its seasonal flu vaccine, mRNA-1010, demonstrated consistently acceptable safety and tolerability across three Phase 3 trials. In the most recent Phase 3 trial, which was designed to test the immunogenicity and safety of an optimized vaccine composition, mRNA-1010 met all immunogenicity primary endpoints, demonstrating higher antibody titers compared to a currently licensed standard-dose flu vaccine. Moderna is in ongoing discussions with regulators and intends to file in 2024.

Moderna expects to recognize the Blackstone funding as a reduction in research and development expenses and will retain full rights and control of the flu program. This funding does not result in any change to Moderna’s 2024 research and development framework spending of approximately $4.5 billion. (Source: Moderna Website, 27 March, 2024)