Bavarian Nordic, the Danish Mpox vaccine maker, on Thursday revealed that it will supply three million extra doses of mpox vaccine in addition to the previously committed 10 million doses by end of 2025.
The biotech company,which is the only firm in the world approved for manufacturing non-replicating smallpox and mpox vaccines, also revealed its plans to expand its manufacturing capacityby transferring business to some companies in Africa or other parts of the world. Through its new partnerships, the company is expecting to supply an additional 50 million doses in the next 12 to 18 months.
"Just as during the outbreak in 2022/23, we will support all requests for vaccine and have already secured agreements and submitted responses to the UNICEF tender that will hopefully secure more access to MVA-BN globally,"Paul Chaplin, President & CEO of Bavarian Nordic, said in a statement.
"We remain committed to the equitable access either through prioritizing our own capacity, accelerating planned improvements in the manufacturing process and by exploring ways to further expand capacity through partnerships around the globe."
Mpox vaccines manufactured by Bavarian Nordic are soldunder brand names like Jynneos, Imvamune and Imvanex. It is preferred by healthcare providers due to its "more favorable low risk profile," according to Forbes.
Recently, ACAM2000, a small pox vaccine, manufactured by Emergent Biosolutionsreceived FDA approval for protecting against Mpox.
Apart from this, a smallpox vaccine, developed by Vector Institute, is approved in Russia and KM Biologics in Japan has domestic approval for itsLC16 vaccine, Forbes Reported.
On 14 August 2024, WHO declared the mpox outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and to control the monkeypox outbreak, on 31 Aug, UNICEF issued an emergency tender to obtain mpox vaccines for the countries, worst-hit by the viral disease.
Democratic Republic of Congo received its first doses of mpox vaccines manufactured by Bavarian Nordic on5 Sep. The mpox vaccines were donated to Congo by European Union.
Mpox, a viral illness caused by the monkey pox virus- a species of the genus Orthopoxvirus-was first reported in monkeys kept in a research lab in Denmark in 1958. In 1970, Democratic Republic of the Congo, reported the first human case of mpox in a nine-month-old boy.
The viral disease started spreading to different parts of the world in 2022.
According to a WHO report, between January 2022 and August 2024, more than 120 countries have reported cases of mpox cases and more than 220 deaths.
Monkeypox is caused mainly by clade I and clade II viruses. Clade I is more contagious and deadlier than the latter. Some countries affected by mpox include DRC, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.
DRC is affected by clade I. It has reported 18,000 cases of mpox and 629 deaths this year.
