On Thursday, Moderna Inc announced that it was developing a two-in-one vaccine booster that could fight both novel coronavirus and seasonal flu viruses. Driven by the news, Moderna Inc's share price rose more than 8 per cent in intraday trading.

The new vaccine, named mRNA-1073, combines Moderna Inc's current COVID-19 vaccine with a flu vaccine also under development. Moderna Inc pointed out that the benefits of developing a panrespiratory vaccine will be enormous. According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC)In the year before novel coronavirus's epidemic, more than 400,000 people in the United States were hospitalized with flu, with an average economic burden of US $11 billion per year caused by seasonal flu.

Moderna Inc CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement on Thursday:

Today we announced the first step in the new respiratory vaccine project, developing a single-dose vaccine that combines a COVID-19 booster needle and a flu booster needle.The company's top priority now is to introduce a panrespiratory enhanced vaccine to the market, and the vaccine will always be customized and upgraded.

I am proud of the progress made by Moderna Inc's team in promoting our first-class mRNA technology while solving the global COVID-19 epidemic. Believe that our mRNA technology can solve the world's biggest health challenges, from diseases that affect millions of people, to ultra-rare diseases that affect dozens of people, to personalized to personal drugs.This is the beginning of a new era of information-based medicine.

On the same day, Moderna Inc also provided an update on the ongoing mid-term COVID-19 vaccine trial, which is aimed at children aged 6 months to under 12 years old.The company said it would test 50 micrograms of the vaccine in a study group of 4000 children aged 6 to 12.The Moderna Inc vaccine was urgently licensed by people over the age of 18 in the United States in December 2020 and is currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to see if it is safe for teenagers.

Moderna Inc revealed on his fifth annual research and development day on Thursday that the company had about $15 billion in cash as of the end of August. Moderna Inc has a total of 37 development plans, of which 34 are candidate development projects, including 22 under clinical research.

With the spread of COVID-19 's various variants of the virus, the US government is also accelerating the popularization of vaccine delivery rates. Us President Joe Biden plans to require all federal employees and government contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the latest news on Thursday. As early as July, Biden said federal workers must be vaccinated or face regular COVID-19 tests and other safety rules, such as wearing masks and restricting official travel in the workplace.