Combined Covid and flu vaccine could be approved for use on NHS by next year

A new combined flu and Covid vaccine could be approved for NHS use this year or next following clinical trials.

New data from clinical trials held by Covid vaccine creator Moderna suggests combined jabs provoke a higher immune response than separate single jabs.

The results raise hopes the new vaccine could be approved by regulators by 2025, with the possibility of it being rolled out on the NHS. Most recent data showed more than 1,300 people were hospitalised with Covid.

A spokesman for Moderna said they hoped the jab would be available for the 2025 or 2026 flu season.

At the moment, Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine for Covid is used in the NHS booster programmes, alongside Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty.

A newer version of Spikevax has been created and tested by Moderna which includes a dose of flu vaccine.

The combination means people would only need one jab rather than two, as at the moment, to give them full protection against Covid and flu.

This is the first time final phase three data for a combined vaccine has been published by any firm.

The news comes after high street pharmacies this year began providing the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine over the counter.

The most recent data published by NHS England on Covid hospital admissions showed as of 31 March 2024, 1,384 hospital beds were filled with suspected Covid patients – compared to 2,780 confirmed patients in March 2023.

In the week up to 29 May, 1,604 community cases of Covid were reported by the UK Health Security Agency.

Any new vaccine would first have to be approved for use by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

The findings from Moderna showed that the mRNA-1083 vaccine led to higher immune responses against flu and Covid than two other single vaccines currently in use, including the current Spikevax.

Stephane Bancel, chief executive of Moderna, said: “Combination vaccines have the potential to reduce the burden of respiratory viruses on health systems and pharmacies, as well as offer people more convenient vaccination options that could improve compliance and provide stronger protection from seasonal illnesses.”

The randomised controlled trial involved two groups of about 4,000 people each, with the first group aged 65 and over testing the new jab compared with a flu vaccine, Fluzone, and the current Spikevax jab.

The second group included adults aged 50 to 64.

The mRNA-1083 jab matched or bettered current flu jabs and was better than the existing Spikevax at making the body produce antibodies – probably because it had been designed to fight more recent variants circulating around the world, Mr Bancel told the BBC.

Professor John Tregoning, Professor in Vaccine Immunology, Imperial College London, said: “Moderna have undertaken a phase III clinical trial of their new RNA vaccine that targets both influenza and Covid-19.

He said the results of the study looked: “the level of antibody against the viruses in the vaccine in the blood of volunteers. The press release does not include a large amount of data – it is quite a high level summary. What they state is that if you compare the antibody response between the new Moderna RNA vaccine and the existing licensed vaccines, there is not a significant difference.”

Professor Tregoning said the main conclusion which can be drawn from the Moderna release is that their vaccine produces anti-influenza and anti-Covid antibodies in those who volunteered for the study.

This story was updated at 16:25 on 10 June following new comments from Moderna on when the vaccine could be available for NHS use and a comment from ProfessorJohn Tregoning.