Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser . In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.Pharmaceutical laboratories are researching new applications for mRNA vaccine technology — and Moderna is hoping to integrate COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus immunization into a single jab.
Creating antigens is a difficult process, and combining different antigens into one vaccine increases its complexity further. “It sounds like it should be so easy, right? You just mix them together,” says Jacqueline Miller, a paediatrician and head of development for infectious disease at Moderna. “But it’s actually much more complicated than the development of individual components.”
The result is a strong immune reaction based on drug components that don’t compete with one another — even if they are targeting different pathogens. COVID-19 booster uptake has dropped in the United States since the first rounds of vaccinations. However, as of this year, around 47% of adults have received the flu shot, according to the US Center for Disease Control. Combining immunizations could help to ensure that more people are protected from COVID-19, says Miller.