Health Pharmaceutical company may produce 440,000 Mpox vaccine doses
The Danish-German pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic has received an order to supply 440,000 doses of its Mpox vaccine to an undisclosed European country.
22.08.2024, 01:29
SDA
The order was expected and included in the company's forecasts for the year, Bavarian Nordic explained. The order will therefore have no impact on the remaining capacity to support the response to the "public health emergency of international concern" declared by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO had declared the highest alert level last week due to the spread of a new Mpox subgroup. It also called for the production of vaccines against Mpox to be expanded.
Two vaccines exist
According to the WHO, two vaccines are available against Mpox: MVA-BN from Bavarian Nordic and the LC16 vaccine developed on behalf of the Japanese government. Known for decades as monkeypox, the disease can be transmitted from animals, but also from person to person in close contact, for example during sex. Symptoms include smallpox-like pustules on the skin, fever and aching limbs. Experts are particularly concerned about sub-variant 1b, which is circulating in the Democratic Republic of Congo and some other African countries such as Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
