A universal flu vaccine could be on the market by the end of the decade, thanks to a new $500 million vaccine program from the National Institutes of Health announced on Thursday.

The new initiative from the Health and Human Services Department, called “Generation Gold Standard,” is expected to start clinical trials next year for a universal flu vaccine, which would be meant to protect patients against any strain of the virus. Should trials be successful, the vaccine is on track for approval from the Food and Drug Administration by 2029.

Recommended Stories

• HHS review says US medical boards failed children with gender dysphoria
• Missouri sued over abortion law requiring minors to have parental consent
• RFK Jr. promises new federal dietary guidelines by summer, shreds Biden-era ‘political document’

Current vaccine development for seasonal viruses, including flu and COVID, requires scientists to model which strain of the virus will be most virulent during the upcoming season, an often imprecise process. The new type of vaccine would instead target the core elements of the virus that do not change from season to season, conferring immunity regardless of year-to-year changes.

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, in a press release, called the project a “paradigm shift.”

“It extends vaccine protection beyond strain-specific limits and prepares for flu viral threats — not just today’s but tomorrow’s as well — using traditional vaccines technology brought into the 21st century,” said Bhattacharya.

The program aims to develop universal vaccines for a host of other viruses that quickly evolve each year, including COVID, MERS, and avian influenza — all of which are labeled as viruses with pandemic potential.

None of the vaccines developed as part of the new initiative are to use mRNA vaccine technology, a method of vaccine making fast-tracked during the COVID pandemic that has drawn significant skepticism from grassroots health advocates.

“Our commitment is clear: every innovation in vaccine development must be grounded in gold standard science, and subjected to the highest standard of safety and efficacy testing,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, said in the press release about the endeavor.

The project surprised multiple career scientists who spoke with CBS News, in part because the project reportedly skipped the review process from the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority, or BARDA.

The $500 million for the project comes from the $5 billion in funds appropriated under the Biden administration’s “Project NextGen” initiative.

Development of the universal flu vaccine is also supposed to be entirely in-house at NIH, a break from past practice, in which grants for projects were given to researchers at universities or non-profits.

In 2022, NIH granted $62.4 million to researchers at seven different universities working on pan-coronavirus vaccines to achieve a similar goal as Generation Gold Standard.