Bavarian Nordic, a Danish pharmaceutical company, says it is ready to produce up to 10 million doses of an mpox vaccine by 2025 in response to a World Health Organisation (WHO) high alert for a resurgence of the virus.
Mpox is spreading once again in Africa following an initial outbreak two years ago.
“We have additional production capacity for 2 million doses in 2024, and a total of 10 million by 2025,” Rolf Sass Sørensen, Vice-President of Bavarian Nordic, told French news agency AFP.
The Danish company, whose vaccine has been authorised since 2019, is awaiting orders from affected countries to start producing the extra doses. “We need to see the contracts,” Sørensen said.
The laboratory currently has about 500,000 doses in stock.
On Tuesday, the African Union’s health agency – Africa CDC – announced the forthcoming deployment of approximately 200,000 doses to Africa, following an agreement with the European Union (EU) and the Danish manufacturer.
At the end of trading on Thursday, the company’s shares had gained nearly 10% on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange – building on a 12% rise the previous day.
Mpox - formerly known as 'monkeypox' - has affected 38,465 people in 16 African countries since January 2022, causing 1,456 deaths. Cases increased by 160% in 2024, compared to the preceding year, based on data released last week by WHO.
Bavarian Nordic normally supplies its mpox vaccine – known as Jynneos in the US, and Imvanex in the EU – to governments and international organisations. However, it began marketing the vaccine in the USA in April.
