US orders smallpox, mpox vaccines worth $63 from Danish firm

HELLERUP, Denmark: The U.S. government placed an order worth US$63 million with Bavarian Nordic (BAVA.CO) for additional bulk product and the final freeze-dried doses of its mpox and smallpox vaccine, Jynneos.

The Danish biotech company will deliver one million freeze-dried vaccines by 2026, as per the contract.

The additional bulk product, representing the majority of the contract value, will help replenish the inventory used to manufacture vaccines in response to the mpox outbreak in 2022.

The World Health Organization declared mpox a global public health emergency In August for the second time in two years. This was following an outbreak of the viral infection in the Democratic Republic of Congo that spread to neighboring countries and beyond.

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.