(Reuters) – Danish biotech firm Bavarian Nordic said on Tuesday it will donate 40,000 doses of its mpox vaccine to Africa’s top public health body, after the body declared an emergency.
Bavarian Nordic said that the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority will procure 175,420 doses of the vaccine and donate it to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the Danish firm will donate an additional 40,000 doses.
Earlier today, Africa CDC declared a “public health emergency of continental security” following an mpox outbreak that spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo to neighbouring countries.
The order from the European authority will have no impact on the Bavarian Nordic’s overall financial guidance for 2024, the company further added.
Mpox is a viral infection transmitted through close contact and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. Most cases are mild but it can kill.
(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
