American company Moderna on Thursday announced mixed interim results for its influenza vaccine using messenger RNA technology, as well as for its Covid-19 vaccine.
These clinical trial results (phase 3) do not yet show the efficacy of the vaccine, but provide data on the immune response induced by an injection.
For the most common influenza A subtypes, known as H1N1 and H3N2, the immune response elicited by Moderna’s vaccine has been shown to be superior to other previously approved vaccines, but not against the Yamagata and Victoria lines of the virus Influenza B
In after-hours electronic trading on Wall Street, Moderna shares lost nearly 6%.
The studies were conducted on more than 6,000 adults in Argentina, Australia, Colombia, Panama and the Philippines.
Participants received either one dose of Moderna’s vaccine (mRNA-1010) or an already approved vaccine.
“Although we have not achieved non-inferiority for influenza B strains, which are more common in young people, we have already updated the vaccine,” Stephen Hoge, company president, said in a Moderna press release. “We believe this could improve the immune response against influenza B and will try to quickly confirm these improvements in an upcoming clinical study thanks to the agility of our mRNA platform. »
The vaccine was generally well tolerated, according to the company.
Current flu vaccines use inactivated viruses that have lost their ability to cause infection while evoking an immune system response.
But the strain used must be chosen months in advance, and its potency ranges from 40 to 60%.
Messenger RNA technology works differently and is intended in particular to enable faster development and adaptation of the vaccine.
The World Health Organization estimates that influenza is responsible for approximately 3 to 5 million cases of serious illness and 290,000 to 650,000 deaths each year. Older people are particularly affected.
Moderna currently has only one product on the market, its vaccine against Covid-19.
The company is also working on combined vaccines, both against influenza, Covid-19, but also RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).
The American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have also started trials for a combined messenger RNA vaccine against influenza and Covid-19.