Moderna's combo Covid and flu mRNA shot outperforms current vaccines in large trial

[BumRushDaShow]

39. One of the points of mRNA is that it doesn't NEED eggs!

The whole "egg" thing, which has been how the more traditional vaccines are cultured, was one of the things that this tech tried to be an alternative to. By not requiring the eggs, the mRNA vaccines can be manufactured much faster and the actual manufacture can occur later in the year ahead of the fall season, allowing more time to determine what variant is circulating the most as the one selected to go with. Moderna and Pfizer have been working on mRNA flu shots for a few years.

J Virol. 2022 Dec 19;97(1):e01723-22. doi: 10.1128/jvi.01723-22

Nucleoside-Modified mRNA-Based Influenza Vaccines Circumvent Problems Associated with H3N2 Vaccine Strain Egg Adaptation

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ABSTRACT

Most human influenza vaccine antigens are produced in fertilized chicken eggs. Recent H3N2 egg-based vaccine antigens have limited effectiveness, partially due to egg-adaptive substitutions that alter the antigenicity of the hemagglutinin (HA) protein. The nucleoside-modified mRNA encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNP) vaccine platform is a promising alternative for egg-based influenza vaccines because mRNA-LNP-derived antigens are not subject to adaptive pressures that arise during the production of antigens in chicken eggs.

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ALSO REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143254580

Moderna trial info - https://trials.modernatx.com/study/?id=mRNA-1083-P301

NIH publication - mRNA-based seasonal influenza and SARS-CoV-2 multicomponent vaccine in healthy adults: a phase 1/2 trial