The US administration has canceled a $590 million contract with Moderna to develop an mRNA vaccine against bird flu, the company's CEO announced.
This is the latest anti-vaccine measure taken by US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known for his statements questioning the achievements of medical science.
The agreement, announced three days before Donald Trump's return to the White House on January 20, was supposed to speed up the development of an mRNA vaccine against the H5N1 bird flu virus, which is circulating among cows and birds.
Experts have warned of the risk of the virus being transmitted to humans and that a pandemic is possible.
Moderna announced yesterday that the US Department of Health and Human Services had canceled $590 million in subsidies, while at the same time presenting positive results from clinical trials conducted on 300 people.
"While the interruption of funding by the Ministry of Health adds uncertainty, we are pleased with the strong immune response observed in this analysis," Moderna CEO Stefan Bansel said in a statement.
The laboratory will examine "possible alternatives" for funding the development and production of the vaccine, the statement added.
The United States reported its first human death linked to bird flu in early January. A man in his 65s died in the southern US state of Louisiana after contracting the H5N1 virus.
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