EU agrees common purchase of vaccine, antiviral against monkeypox, paper

SIGA Technologies

27/05/2022 10:40

STOCKHOLM, May 27 (Reuters) - The European Union has decided
on common purchasing of a vaccine and antiviral to fight the
outbreak of monkeypox, a virus endemic in Africa and usually
rare in other places, Sweden's vaccine coordinator said on
Friday.
    "After several meetings it has been decided that we will buy
both vaccine and an antiviral treatment," Swedish daily Dagens
Nyheter quoted coordinator Richard Bergstrom as saying.
    The paper said the EU would buy Bavarian Nordic's Imvanex
and Tecovirimat from Siga Technologies in the United States.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2XG5LK
    Bergstrom said that the EU had not yet signed a contract
with either firm.
    "But it will go quickly. We should have a contract ready in
a week or so and maybe some limited deliveries in June," the
paper quoted him saying.
    Reuters was seeking comment from the EU on the report.
    Imvanex is a vaccine against smallpox, to which monkey pox
is closely related.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2XG5MK
    It has U.S. approval for the prevention of both smallpox and
monkeypox. European Union approval is for smallpox, although
doctors can prescribe it off-label for monkeypox.
    Global health officials have tracked more than 200 suspected
and confirmed cases of the usually mild viral infection in 19
countries since early May. The monkeypox variant implicated in
the current outbreak has a case fatality rate of around 1%,
though no deaths have been reported so far.
    

 (Reporting by Simon Johnson; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
 ((simon.c.johnson@thomsonreuters.com; +46 70 721 1045; Reuters
Messaging: simon.c.johnson.reuters.com@reuters.net))