Moderna stock drops after posting interim data for mRNA flu vaccine
Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani details Moderna's interim data on its latest flu vaccine reported to provide protection from multiple flu strains.
Video Transcript
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: So we got some word from Moderna this morning about-- it's picking up, basically, where it left off prior to the pandemic, which was looking at flu for its mRNA platform, and had been working on a flu vaccine with the NIH. But now, it's giving us positive results from a phase one trial for a quadrivalent flu vaccine. And that means that it's going after the four main flu viruses that circulate every year. So that's--
While we don't know much more about the virus and sorry the vaccine and it's a data right now, we do know that they have been comparing it to one of the sort of larger ones on the market. That's Sanofi's Fluzone. And that is a higher dose of vaccine, used for older adults who need more protection during the flu season. So it seems like they're going after that one as sort of the baseline.
They did test various-- just as they did with the COVID vaccine. They did test the various doses and landed on the 50 microgram dose. And this is different from what they did with the COVID vaccine, which was 100 microgram dose initially. And they did note that because, you know, individuals-- basically the patient population-- pretty much is already used to flu vaccines. This would just be an additional booster versus introducing an entirely new vaccine to the population.
Right now, the flu market is about half a million doses a year. And they are looking at going global with this, if they can get to the finish line with it. So this was just phase one data that they shared with us today. They have already enrolled for phase two, and we'll look for more details to come out there.
Just an interesting side note the "Wall Street Journal" is reporting today, that one of those four main flu vaccines actually hasn't been reported in the last couple of years, because of the pandemic. So it's possible that COVID did away with one of those major flu strains, so just an interesting side note there as of it. Back to you.
BRIAN CHEUNG: Yeah, well, at least there's one silver lining there. Now, Anjalee, can we just kind of clarify here exactly, because we're talking about a lot of different types of shots for different types of flu-- for different types of strains right now. What is the update on Moderna with regards to specifically the Omicron variant, right?
Because what we're talking about here is not the same as a separate shot that could be used to address the new variant, right? So what exactly is the update, at least from Moderna, on what the efficacy of their existing vaccines are to that variant?
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Well, they don't have much of an update right now. And that's exactly-- possibly why, some-- our experts are suggesting that might be why the stock isn't doing so well. In addition to the fact that the data that they showed was comparable to the existing vaccines on the market, didn't necessarily out perform them. So a lot of that really is on the table right now. They still haven't really said much about their Omicron-specific dose.
JULIE HYMAN: Anjalee, thank you. We're going to keep watching, obviously, what's going on with Moderna--
