Europe Secure 440,000 Mpox Vaccine Doses

Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic announced on Wednesday that it has signed a contract to supply 440,000 doses of its monkeypox vaccine (Mpox) to unspecified European countries.

This move comes amid growing international concern over a more dangerous strain of Mpox identified as "Clade 1B," which the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global health emergency, its highest alert level.

The company indicated that this latest order was anticipated and factored into its forecasts for the year.

Bavarian Nordic’s CEO, Paul Chaplin, emphasized that the contract was planned within the company's core guidelines for the year, ensuring that their capacity to support governments and organizations in responding to the global health emergency would remain unaffected.

Bavarian Nordic has committed to producing up to 10 million doses of its monkeypox vaccine by the end of 2025.

The WHO has called for a significant increase in vaccine production and has highlighted vaccination campaigns as a top priority for affected countries.

The African Union health agency reported last week that approximately 200,000 doses would be distributed across Africa through an agreement with the European Union and Bavarian Nordic. The company’s vaccine has been approved for monkeypox prevention since 2019.

Additionally, France has pledged to donate 100,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine to countries with reported cases.

The United States has also announced it will donate 50,000 doses to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has reported over 16,000 cases and 500 deaths this year.