Moderna chief: Company won’t invest in new late-stage vaccine trials

January 26, 2026

Moderna chief executive officer Stephane Bancel said the company does not plan to invest in new late-stage vaccine trials because of growing opposition to immunizations from health officials in the United States.

His comments were made last week during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“You cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the U.S. market,” Bancel told Bloomberg TV. He said the vaccine market in the United States is much smaller as more anti-vaccine guidelines have become the norm.

You cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the U.S. market.

Since last May, the Department of Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership has greatly reduced general recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines, and most recently cut the number of recommended childhood immunizations from 17 to 11. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, also in attendance in Davos, remarked Kennedy’s policies are “almost like a religion” and “anti-science.”

Economic analysts said Bancel’s comments mean Moderna’s phase 3 clinical trials for vaccines will likely be on the chopping block. Moderna has already been facing declines in sales after a boom during the COVID-19 pandemic.

H5N1 avian flu virus has been detected in a dairy cow in the Netherlands, marking the first detection of avian influenza in cattle outside of the United States. Netherland’s Ministry of Agriculture said late last week the healthy cow was tested after two cats on a dairy farm in Friesland province were sickened with avian flu. At the time of testing, the cow was healthy but had suffered with mastitis and respiratory symptoms in December 2025. The detection occurs two years after cattle in Texas were first sickened in a spillover event.
In a statement, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the US withdrawal from the organization last week makes both the United States and the world less safe. “WHO takes note of statements from the government of the United States that say WHO has ‘trashed and tarnished’ and insulted it, and compromised its independence. The reverse is true,” WHO officials said. The statement went on to decry accusations made by the Trump administration about the WHO’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, but said it hopes the nation will return to active participation in the agency.
Ethiopiasaid its first ever Marburg virus outbreak is over after 42 days (two, 21-day transmission cycles) have passed with no new cases. Per the WHO, 14 cases were confirmed during the outbreak, including nine deaths and five recoveries. Three health care workers were infected during the outbreak; two died and one recovered. The South Ethiopia Region was the epicenter of the outbreak, and the WHO praised Ethiopia for quick action and containment.
The RECOVER-Treating Long COVID trial will begin enrolling participants, two years after the National Institutes for Health launched the effort to deliver dedicated long-COVID research and treatments, the Sick Times reported. Two trials set to begin this summer will look at using low-dose naltrexone and semaglutide (Ozempic) as treatments for long COVID. Several long-COVID advocates have criticized the slow launch of the trials, saying conditions of the RECOVER project were speed and urgency in research.