COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Bavarian Nordic announced on Friday a new contract with the European Commission, allowing countries across Europe to buy up to eight million doses of its smallpox and mpox vaccine over the next four years.
Under the framework replacing a 2022 deal, 1.1 million doses have already been committed, with 750,000 scheduled for delivery in 2026, while provisions are made for donations to low-income countries at adjusted pricing, the Danish biotech said.
“This agreement is a recognition of public health security as part of the resilience that the EU is building to unify against threats on a larger scale,” Bavarian CEO Paul Chaplin said.
Mpox can spread through close contact. Usually mild, it is fatal in rare cases. It causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.
In addition to European Union member states, countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the Western Balkan countries are eligible to join the procurement agreement, Bavarian said. It did not disclose the value of the deal.
The World Health Organization recently declared that the disease is no longer an international health emergency following a drop in infections in African hot spots.
Bavarian Nordic, a key supplier to public health programmes, has long provided vaccines for smallpox, an eradicated disease, stockpiled by countries such as Japan, the United States and Canada in preparation for potential re-emergence.
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, editing by Terje Solsvik)
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