Moderna is close to clinching a deal with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop messenger RNA vaccines targeting a range of biological threats such as Ebola virus.

The contract will see Moderna work with researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston to build on the company's mRNA technology that was used to rapidly make Covid-19 vaccines, according to people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to speak on the deal because it has not yet been finalized. Ebola has returned to the fore as a vaccine-resistant strain of the deadly virus spawned an outbreak in Uganda that began in September.

While talks between Moderna, UTMB and the Defense Department began well before the Uganda outbreak, Moderna's vaccine aims to target the strain spreading there, called Sudan ebolavirus, as well as the more-common Zaire strain and related Marburg virus, according to one of the people. However, it's unlikely Moderna's candidate would be ready to use in time to address the burst of cases in Uganda. So far 95 people have been infected in that country, according to its Ministry of Health.

– Bloomberg