US NIH Initiates Proceedings For Six Strains of influenza virus

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States announced the start of an early-stage research on an experimental vaccine targeting six strains of influenza virus. The vaccine candidate, FluMos-v2, is intended to protect against four strains of the influenza A virus and two strains of the influenza B virus, according to the health service. "An ideal universal influenza vaccine could be taken less frequently than once a year and protect against multiple strains of influenza virus.

With each new universal influenza vaccine candidate and clinical trial, we take another step closer to that goal," said Hugh Auchincloss, acting director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH. According to the NIH, the trial will enroll 24 healthy volunteers aged 18 to 50 who will get two intramuscular injections of FluMos-v2 separated by 16 weeks. FluMos-v2 has been designed by researchers at NIAID's Vaccine Research Center, as per economic times. In a late-stage trial, COVID vaccine developer Moderna reported that its flu vaccine elicited a greater immune response against all four A and B strains of the influenza virus than regular flu vaccinations.