UK begins H5N1 mRNA bird flu vaccine trial with 4,000 volunteers
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The UK has begun a 4,000-volunteer H5N1 bird flu vaccine trial using mRNA technology. The study will assess safety and immune response, with CEPI providing £40m in funding.
The first volunteers in the UK have been immunised with a vaccine to protect against a potential bird flu pandemic. The vaccine targets the H5N1 flu strain and uses the same mRNA technology used in current Covid jabs, with scientists saying this enables the vaccine to be created quickly and at scale in the event of a pandemic.
The large-scale trial will involve 4,000 volunteers, with three-quarters recruited at 26 sites in England and Scotland and the rest in the United States. The trial is hoping to recruit people who work in the poultry industry or are over the age of 65, described as the two most at-risk groups.
The study will examine whether the vaccine is safe and can generate a strong immune response. If so, it could then be licensed for use if needed. The strain was described as evolving and spreading across animal species, and although it does not yet move easily between humans, human-to-human transmission was described as a real possibility.
There have been 116 confirmed human cases around the world since 2024, almost all linked to close contact with infected animals. The threat to humans is currently low, with almost all human cases linked to close contact with infected animals. Since 2003, there have been around 1,000 confirmed human cases reported to the World Health Organization and nearly half of those proved fatal.
If the vaccine is needed, it would be manufactured at Moderna's new plant at Harwell in Oxfordshire, which currently produces Covid vaccines for the UK. It can produce 100 million doses of vaccine per year, and in the event of a pandemic this could be increased to 250 million doses.
The traditional method of creating flu vaccines involves growing the virus in eggs, but this can be a problem when there are virulent avian flu strains which can kill the eggs used during manufacturing. During the Covid pandemic, mRNA vaccines were shown to be highly effective at preventing serious illness, and could be produced and altered rapidly, as strains evolved.
CEPI has provided £40m of funding for the trial. As part of the deal, Moderna has agreed to guarantee fast and affordable supply of the vaccine to low and middle-income countries in any future pandemic.