Other pharmaceutical companies are also working on a combined flu and Covid-19 vaccine. But Moderna is the first to provide phase 3 trial results, that is to say large-scale trials.
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The American company Moderna announced on Monday June 10 that its combined vaccine against influenza and Covid-19 showed good results in adults aged 50 and over. Tested on several thousand people, the vaccine has “triggered a higher immune response” as separate vaccines already approved against these two diseases, assures the laboratory.
“Combination vaccines can reduce the burden of respiratory viruses on health systems and pharmacies and provide people with more convenient vaccination options”, declared the company’s boss, Stéphane Bancel, in a press release. According to him, being able to administer a single vaccine against these two diseases at the same time could make it possible to increase vaccination rates in the targeted population.
If other pharmaceutical companies are also working on a combined vaccine, such as Pfizer and Novavax, Moderna is the first to provide results from phase 3, i.e. large-scale, trials. The vaccine, called mRNA-1083 and using messenger RNA technology, combines Moderna’s “latest generation” Covid-19 vaccine and its flu vaccine candidate, which has not received authorization for moment.
The clinical trial included two groups of 4,000 people. In the first group, made up of adults aged 65 and over, the combined vaccine was compared to Sanofi’s Fluzone vaccine and Moderna’s approved Covid-19 vaccine, administered separately. In the second group, this time adults aged 50 to 64, the combined vaccine was compared to the Fluarix vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline and still the Moderna vaccine against Covid-19. Each time, the combined vaccine elicited a higher immune response against the Covid and influenza viruses (H1N1, H3N2 subtypes and B-Victoria lineage).
Moderna said it plans to submit detailed results of the trial for publication in a scientific journal. The company “will speak with regulators about next steps”she added in the press release.