EU drugs regulator beefs up monkeypox response after emergency declaration

SIGA Technologies

27/07/2022 12:04

By Natalie  Grover
    LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - The European drugs regulator is
bolstering its response to escalating cases of monkeypox, days
after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a
global health emergency. 
    The European Medicines Agency's (EMA) emergency task force -
an advisory body tasked with handling regulatory activities
during a public-health emergency - now will tackle both COVID-19
and monkeypox, the regulator said on Wednesday.
    The task force will offer scientific advice, review the
available scientific data, and coordinate independent monitoring
studies on interventions, such as the Bavarian Nordic  BAVA.CO 
vaccine and SIGA Technologies  SIGA.O  antiviral, which are
being used to combat monkeypox. 
    Monkeypox is a virus than typically causes mild symptoms
including fever, aches and pus-filled skin lesions. People tend
to usually recover on their own within two to four weeks,
according to the WHO.
    First identified in monkeys, the virus is transmitted
chiefly through close contact, and is typically endemic to
Africa. 
    After initial reports of European cases in May, cases have
since ballooned to more than 16,000 from than 75 countries. Five
deaths, all of which occurred in Africa, have been reported so
far.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2Z60JR
    On Tuesday, British health agencies secured funding to
develop a standardised approach to test the performance of
vaccines being used or in development against monkeypox.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2Z70P7
    It is very difficult to predict how the outbreak will
unfold, said Carlos Maluquer de Motes, who runs a research group
studying poxvirus biology at the University of Surrey. 
    "There has been no decline in the number of confirmed
monkeypox cases since the beginning of the outbreak...this
indicates that the public health measures deployed so far have
had minimal impact and that the outbreak is unlikely to die off
by natural causes."

 (Reporting by Natalie Grover in London; Editing by Frank Jack
Daniel)
 ((natalie.grover@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @NatalieGrover;))