Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the U.K. government ordered a combined 650,000 doses of Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos mpox vaccine just days after the Danish drugmaker announced it would focus its resources to produce as many as 2 million doses by the end of 2024.
Gavi, a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate more than half the world’s children against deadly diseases, struck the agreement to purchase doses for African countries battling mpox, Bavarian Nordic said in a Sept. 18 press release. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The 500,000 shots ordered by the group will be funded by Gavi’s First Response Fund, which was formed in June to purchase vaccines quickly during health emergencies. The doses will be delivered by the end of the year.
“The doses secured through this agreement will significantly increase the availability of mpox vaccines for African countries,” Paul Chaplin, president and CEO of Bavarian Nordic, said in the release.
Separately, the U.K. government tapped Bavarian Nordic for 150,000 mpox shots that will allow the National Health Service to vaccinate people with a higher risk of coming into contact with the virus (formerly known as monkeypox), the government said in a Sept. 16 press release. Financial details related to that deal also weren’t disclosed.
The deals come in the wake of the World Health Organization declaring a public health emergency of international concern following an upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other parts of Africa.
Last week, Bavarian Nordic provided an update on its effort to meet robust demand for the shot from both governmental and health organizations like Gavi, UNICEF, the Africa CDC and Europe’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA). The company said it would “retool” some of its vaccine supply pacts so the shots go to the regions most in need.
At the same time, the company is exploring options to significantly increase the supply of Jynneos over the next 18 months.