United States Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that his department is canceling 22 mRNA vaccine development contracts worth $500 million, as it moves towards "safer, broader vaccine strategies."
This shift in prioritization seeks to replace the "troubled mRNA programs" with whole-virus vaccines and "novel platforms that don't collapse when viruses mutate," Kennedy said. "After reviewing the science and consulting top experts at NIH [National Institutes of Health] and FDA [Food and Drug Administration], HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] has determined that mRNA technology poses more risk than benefits" for respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu, he added.
Some of the 22 contracts being pulled by the HHS' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) are being run by companies like Moderna and Pfizer, according to the department's official announcement.
