An mRNA researcher marks a year since 22 projects were cancelled

Jeff Coller of Johns Hopkins argues the platform has been vindicated. On Aug 5 2025, HHS killed 22 mRNA vaccine projects worth roughly $500 million.

STAT has published an opinion piece by Jeff Coller, Bloomberg distinguished professor of RNA biology and therapeutics at Johns Hopkins and a co-founder of the Alliance for mRNA Medicines, marking one year since the Department of Health and Human Services cancelled 22 mRNA vaccine development projects worth roughly $500 million on August 5, 2025. Coller's argument is that the intervening year's results, including the mRNA flu vaccine approved this week, show the decision was scientifically unfounded, and that Congress should restore the funding.

We are carding this separately from the approval story it is pegged to, and marking it as a duplicate so the ledger counts the underlying news once. What it adds is the specific figure: 22 projects, roughly $500 million, on a dated decision. That is a countable withdrawal of capital from a platform, and it is the kind of number that belongs in a record even when it arrives inside an argument.

The rest is argument, and it is argument from an interested party — the author co-founded the industry alliance for the technology in question, which the piece discloses. Whether one year of results vindicates a platform is a judgment, not a measurement, and this site scores judgments at 1. The cancellation date and dollar figure are checkable. The conclusion drawn from them is Coller's.

Source: STAT