RFK Jr. halts $500 million for mRNA vaccine research

The federal government is calling off around $500 million worth of vaccine development projects that use mRNA technology, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday.

The 22 now-terminated projects were funded through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA. Most of the projects that were canceled were for vaccines that fight COVID-19 or the flu, Kennedy said.

They include proposals from Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur and other drugmakers that were rejected or canceled, along with a now-shuttered award to Moderna to develop a bird flu vaccine, according to an HHS statement. The projects were reviewed and canceled over the last few weeks, said Kennedy...