Moderna flu shot succeeds in late-stage study

Massachusetts, The Gulf Observer: Moderna on Wednesday said its flu vaccine had generated a stronger immune response against all four A and B strains of the virus compared to traditional flu shots in a late-stage trial, sending shares up about 7% in premarket trading.

The effectiveness of Moderna’s flu vaccine was demonstrated across all age groups, including older patients, and was found to be safe and tolerable, according to the company. Moderna also said it had found that its shot was equal or superior to Sanofi’s high-dose flu vaccine in a separate early head-to-head study.

Moderna could use this data to file for accelerated approval of its flu shot in the United States by year-end, and likely launch the vaccine by the 2024/2025 season, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said in a note.

The company had previously said that there was not enough available data to determine if the flu vaccine would succeed, after it failed to meet the “early-success” criteria in the study.

Moderna also announced that it was scaling down manufacturing of its COVID-19 vaccine, an updated version of which was approved this week by U.S. regulators, to align with lower post-pandemic demand and help the company sooner hit its target of 75%-80% gross margin growth.

Moderna in August predicted that U.S. demand for the vaccine would reach 50 million-100 million doses in the fall season. About 153.8 million COVID shots were administered in the United States in 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Over the past couple of years, we’ve been in pandemic mode producing a billion doses a year,” Hoge said. “We’ve been waiting for the moment when the pandemic was officially behind us that we would need to restructure that manufacturing footprint.”