I suppose the good news now is that over two million doses can reach Africa — by year end. The harder news is that almost all of these dead — all of this, in fact — was… largely… avoidable.
That is, these doses could have been delivered last year, but for red tape in the international delivery / payments [non-]system — for high burden disease vaccine programs (like Ebola, Marburgs and yes, Mpox Clade Ib).
And candidly, there has been a fair amount of entirely-proper indignation — over Bavarian’s earlier pricing — previously at around $100 per dose. That figure just won’t work, in sub-Saharan Africa. In DRC for example, that would exceed the annual budget for all health care treatments, in the country (on just ten million doses, with a population of ~100 million people) — with cholera, malaria and even Ebola a constant threat. The official DRC health ministers cannot spend the entire budget on a single set of vaccines, no matter how urgent the need.
So — Bavarian has agreed to reduced / subsidized pricing, from WHO — and from other contributing nations. [Still, charging over $100 per jab to US- and EU- buyers… is largely why the currently existing supplies never reached Africa during the prior two years. We must do better. There are clearly very capable vaccine manufacturing facilities in India, for example, that could contract manufacture at a much lower price point, if Bavarian would just sign an IP license (again at lower margins) — for/to these others. Much like the approach used — gridding out the globe, by agreed therapies / price bands — as we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic.]
In any event, here is the latest news, on this retooling effort:
…While the two million additional doses announced by the laboratory “appears to be sufficient to meet the anticipated short- to medium-term demand” the Danish drugmaker “continues to explore additional levers that could further expand the capacity,” the company said.
This includes looking at transferring “manufacturing to other companies either in Africa or other parts of the world.”
The vaccine is intended for adults only….
As a result of the priority given to the mpox vaccine, Bavarian Nordic will postpone certain other orders that were due to be fulfilled in 2024 to 2025, the company said without providing further detail….
And obviously, with about ~70 percent of the DRC Clade Ib Mpox cases appearing in children (at present), we need better options… for kids. The approved vaccines are not yet FDA-tested, as safe for children under age 14.
Now, we may reasonably suspect, based on very similar smallpox vaccines being safe in young children, that the Mpox vaccine will also be — but we need more data, to be certain.
Onward — into a vexing moment, indeed.
नमस्ते
