Vaccine Makers Curtail Research and Cut Jobs

When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was picked in November 2024 to become the next health secretary, public health experts worried that the longtime vaccine skeptic would wreak havoc on the fragile business of vaccine development. Now, Moderna is pulling back on vaccine studies. In Texas, a small company canceled plans to build a factory that would have created new jobs manufacturing a technology used in vaccines. In San Diego, another manufacturing company laid off workers.

Perhaps no vaccine maker has been hit harder by the federal policy changes than Moderna. Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly questioned the safety and effectiveness of the technology around which the company has built its business. The technology, known as messenger RNA, or mRNA, instructs the body to produce a fragment of a virus that then sets off an immune response. It can be more quickly tailored and manufactured compared to traditional approaches. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration refused to review Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine, saying its research design was flawed.

Mr. Kennedy has argued that Covid shots using mRNA are not effective because they do not prevent infection. He also once called them “the deadliest vaccine ever made.” Like all shots, mRNA vaccines sometimes cause side effects, but extensive research has found the shots are safe overall and that serious reactions occur rarely.

Last month, federal health officials overhauled the childhood vaccination schedule, reducing the number of recommended immunizations to 11 from 17, deciding that that the six vaccines that were dropped should now be given only in consultation with a clinician. The changes “sent a chill through the entire industry,” said Jeff Coller, a scientist who works on mRNA at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Coller advises several small mRNA companies and is on the executive committee of the Alliance for mRNA Medicines, a trade group.

The federal vaccine policies coupled with declining demand for Covid shots have translated into hard times for Moderna. Last year, the company laid off more than 800 workers, a tenth of its work force. It also lost more than $700 million in contracts to develop a shot to protect humans against bird flu after the Trump administration canceled the agreements. And the company shelved vaccines to protect against herpes, chickenpox and shingles. Moderna plans to continue late-stage studies of mRNA products for cancer. But citing the Trump administration’s stance, the company is pausing late-stage development of shots to prevent infectious diseases and infections that lurk in the body.

For example, Moderna has halted preparatory work for large late-stage clinical trials of vaccines to prevent and treat Epstein-Barr, a common virus that may be linked to multiple sclerosis. The vaccines had shown promise in early studies. Plano, Texas, lost out on more than 170 new jobs when NTx Bio, which manufactures a device about the size of a microwave for producing mRNA, retreated from plans to build a plant there. The small company attributed its decision to a considerable slowdown in sales last year amid a challenging business climate.

A major concern for the big companies is whether the Trump administration will do away with the special liability protections afforded to vaccine makers that have helped them stay in the market. Allies of Mr. Kennedy who have sought to undermine vaccines — including Aaron Siri, a plaintiff’s lawyer representing vaccine injury claims, and Del Bigtree, a prominent anti-vaccine activist — have said they believe the decision to rescind recommendations for certain immunizations provides an opening to strip manufacturers of existing liability shields. That could expose the companies to big-dollar lawsuits.

Steady declines in the number of Americans getting vaccinated are dampening sales for the big vaccine manufacturers, a trend dating back to well before Mr. Kennedy’s tenure. Vaccination rates among kindergartners have been falling for years, and efforts to weaken immunization requirements in a handful of states, including Idaho, could further erode those rates. This season, the number of flu vaccine doses distributed in the United States is on pace to fall to its lowest level in 12 years. That figure has dropped steadily since reaching a high point five years ago during the Covid pandemic. Researchers blame the rise of misinformation about vaccines.

As the government has turned on vaccines, investors’ appetite for the sector has cooled. “We are more wary,” said Peter Kolchinsky, a biotechnology investor in Boston. “It’s clear that some vaccines are going to be harder to get through than others, so we have to invest more cautiously, if at all.” Last year, venture capital investors poured $174 million into companies developing new mRNA vaccines, down from $510 million in 2023.

The newfound perils for investors are illustrated by Blackstone, the investment firm, which invested $750 million in the development of the Moderna flu vaccine that the F.D.A. refused to review — and that now might never make money in the United States. Blackstone stood to receive royalties and other payments if the shot came to market.