COPENHAGEN, Aug 22, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic said
Wednesday it had signed a contract to supply 440,000 doses of its mpox
vaccine to an "undisclosed European country".

The World Health Organization (WHO) last week declared the rapid spread of
the new, more dangerous mpox strain, dubbed Clade 1b, a public health
emergency of international concern -- the highest alarm the UN agency can
sound.

Bavarian Nordic said the order was anticipated and included in the company's
projections for the year.

"The latest order was planned as part of our original guidance for this year,
and as such, will not impact the remaining capacity that is available to
support governments and organizations to address the current WHO declared
Public Health Emergency of International Concern for mpox," Paul Chaplin, CEO
of Bavarian Nordic, said in a statement.

The vaccine maker said last week that it was ready to supply up to 10 million
doses of its vaccine targeting mpox by the end of 2025.

The UN health agency has called for a major increase in vaccine production
and said that a vaccination campaign must be a key priority for affected
countries.

Last week, the health agency of the African Union said some 200,000 vaccines
would be deployed across Africa, thanks to agreements with the EU and the
Danish drugmaker, whose vaccine was approved in 2019.

France this week announced that it would donate 100,000 mpox vaccine doses to
countries suffering from the emergency and the United States has said it will
donate 50,000 mpox vaccine doses to Democratic Republic of Congo, which has
reported more than 16,000 cases and 500 deaths this year.

On August 15 Sweden reported the first confirmed Clade 1b case outside
Africa.