Winter is coming to the northern hemisphere, and with it, the flu season — however, advances spurred by the fight against Covid-19 are boosting hopes of finding a more reliable vaccine, AFP reports.

Drugmakers and laboratories are now rushing to apply what has been learned about RNA jabs to the flu, motivated by the potential not only for more effective, life-saving vaccines but also the vast profits up for grabs.

Last month US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer began injecting humans with a flu vaccine that uses messenger RNA (or mRNA), which it already uses in its coronavirus vaccine.

For drugmakers, the prospect of producing an mRNA vaccine to ward off the flu is an appealing one, said Jamila El Bougrini, a biotech specialist at stock market analyst Invest Securities. The market for flu jab sales hit $5 billion in 2020, and this year could reach up to $7bn.