Logistical issues with vaccine pose risk to mpox response, FT reports

Efforts to produce vaccines to aid the mpox international public health emergency in central and east Africa risk is being hobbled by a lack of orders and logistical challenges, Ian Johnston and Michael Peel of The Financial Times reports. Cases of the outbreak have been detected in 13 African countries and will need 2M vaccine doses by the end of the year to help control the outbreak, according to the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Bavarian Nordic (BVNRY) has 300,000 doses of its Jynneos vaccine available and has enough production capacity to meet the demand, but faces challenges including lack of approval in some affected countries and the need for a cold supply chain, CEO Paul Chaplin told the Financial Times. A shot by Japan’s KM Biologics is also recommended by the WHO’s immunization advisory group while USA’s Emergent BioSolutions (EBS) also has a vaccine for smallpox, but neither company responded to requests for comment.