To counter mpox, vaccine maker could ramp up by another 8 million doses next year
When mpox first began to spread internationally in 2022, affected countries scrambled to buy some of the limited supply of poxvirus vaccines produced in the world. The Danish company Bavarian Nordic, maker of the Jynneos smallpox vaccine, faced the sizable challenge of trying to meet demand with its supply.
This week’s declaration of a second public health emergency of international concern to deal with new and concerning outbreaks of mpox in Africa has again thrust the company onto center stage. The World Health Organization disclosed some projections of how much vaccine it thought Bavarian Nordic could make (cited in a STAT story here) that were rather quickly corrected by the company itself.
STAT caught up with CEO Paul Chaplin on Thursday to ask what Bavarian Nordic can actually produce — if purchasers place orders. To date the only order the company has received is one for 175,000 placed by the European Union’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), which it is donating to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BN, as Chaplin refers to the company, has topped that up with a donation of 40,000 doses. The combined purchases and donation equal 215,000 doses, enough vaccine to vaccinate 107, 500 people. Jynneos is given in two doses.
The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
