(Bloomberg) -- Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is purchasing 500,000 mpox vaccines from Bavarian Nordic A/S for African countries hardest-hit by the lethal outbreak.
The shots are for distribution this year and will be allocated by prioritizing areas with the greatest need, Gavi said in a statement Wednesday. That means that the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is the epicenter of the outbreak, is likely to receive the lion’s share of the donations.
Bavarian Nordic will be ready to supply the shots once it has signed a supply agreement with UNICEF, which will be delivering the doses for the disease that causes lesions that can also result in blindness and disfigurement.
While the price of the inoculations hasn’t been disclosed, Gavi Chief Executive Officer Sania Nishtar held “a conversation with the CEO of Bavarian Nordic,” and has “done whatever we can,” to reduce the price, she said in an interview on Bloomberg Television on Wednesday.
Gavi is using as much as $50 million from its new emergency response fund, with that cash being used to buy the vaccines as well as pay for all the related costs including delivery and administration.
It’s the first time the new fund, which consists of $500 million in surge financing, has been used. That cash is part of a larger pot of $2.5 billion for pandemics. Still, Gavi has plenty experience in getting vaccines to low- and middle-income countries — it played a central role in getting Covid-19 shots to the region during the pandemic.
Bavarian Nordic has been working to boost supply, saying this month that it can provide as many as 13 million shots by 2025. It has 2 million doses that it could deliver this year. Gavi is also hoping to set up an mpox vaccine stockpile for any future outbreaks, albeit that will require donor funding.
Even though Africa is the only region where the disease is endemic, it didn’t receive vaccines for the virus in 2022 as a less virulent version of the infectious illness spread around the world. Previously pegged at about $100 to $141 per dose, the vaccines are expensive.
Now, with a more deadly version spreading in Congo and neighboring countries, wealthy nations have announced donations of shots from their own stockpiles. More than 620,000 doses of Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine have been pledged by the European Commission, and countries including France, Germany, Spain, and US. Japan has promised 3 million shots from KM Biologics, another mpox vaccine developer.
--With assistance from Sanne Wass.
(Updates with Gavi CEO comment from third paragraph)
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