(Copenhagen) Bavarian Nordic, the Danish manufacturer of the MPOX vaccine, said on Thursday it was “better prepared” to supply the world with serum against the disease than during the previous outbreak in 2022.
“We are better prepared,” explained the CEO of the Danish laboratory, Paul Chaplin, on the occasion of the presentation of its quarterly results.
“Not only have we built up stocks to meet anticipated orders, but we have also built up stocks to enable us to be able to respond in the event of an outbreak, as is currently the case,” he said.
Last week, Bavarian Nordic said it was ready to produce up to 10 million doses of vaccine by 2025. The company currently has some 500,000 doses in stock.
According to the group, “the time is probably not as much for panic as in 2022/2023”, especially since the laboratory is unaware of the state of the stocks of vaccines already distributed in the world.
The sharp resurgence of the disease in Africa is mainly due to a new strain, clade 1b, which is more transmissible and more dangerous than previous strains.
The epidemic is partly spread through sexual relations, but the virus is also transmitted through non-sexual contact, also threatening children in whom the disease appears more dangerous.
Bavarian Nordic recently asked the European Medicines Agency to extend the use of its vaccine to adolescents aged 12 to 17. The Danish laboratory, which had a turnover of 1.4 billion crowns (about 284 million Canadian dollars) in the second quarter, expects sales of 5.3 billion crowns (1.07 billion Canadian dollars) for the full year.