The money replaces a small portion of a contract Moderna lost when the Department of Health and Human Services canceled $760 million in backing to develop the vaccine, called mRNA-1018.
Stepping in to partially cover a contract canceled by the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations has awarded Moderna $54.3 million to develop the company’s avian influenza mRNA vaccine.
The funding, announced Thursday, will go toward a pivotal Phase III trial for Moderna’s investigational H5 pandemic influenza candidate mRNA-1018. It would be the first such vaccine for a pandemic-level influenza virus to enter a Phase III trial, according to the company’s announcement.
“By harnessing the speed and adaptability of mRNA technology, we could shave months off the response time, deliver vaccines at scale, and enable equitable access for all,” CEPI CEO Richard Hatchett said in a statement. “This is how we plan to protect the world from the next flu pandemic.”
As part of the funding agreement, Moderna will allocate 20% of its manufacturing capacity for mRNA-1018 for “timely supply” to low- and middle-income countries at “affordable prices.”
An original source of funding for the project was lost in May when HHS canceled a $760 million contract between the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Moderna, originally granted in July 2024, to develop the vaccine, as well as vaccines for five additional subtypes of pandemic influenza.
Also in May, Moderna announced results of a Phase I/II trial for mRNA-1018, showing that after three weeks, 97.8% of participants who received two doses of the vaccine reached high antibody titers equivalent to immune protection.
The new agreement between CEPI and Moderna is part of a broader coalition the two formed in 2023 to create mRNA vaccines for “viral disease outbreaks that threaten global health.” That pact kicked off with a project to evaluate AI-generated designs for a variety of undisclosed viral families.
CEPI is a public/private partnership aimed at developing new vaccines to head off future pandemics. It was established in 2017 with $460 million in funding from the governments of Germany, Japan and Norway, along with the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust. CEPI was an original backer of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, giving the company $900,000 to develop the vaccine in January 2020.
