Bavarian Nordic A/S (OMX: BAVA) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, have announced an Advance Purchase Agreement (APA) to secure 500,000 doses of the MVA-BN mpox vaccine to be supplied to countries in Africa impacted by the mpox outbreak.
According to information made available by the Gavi Allliance, the vaccines will be funded by Gavi’s First Response Fund, a new financial mechanism created in June 2024 to make cash rapidly available to purchase vaccines in health emergencies.
The Chief Executive Officer of Gavi, Dr Sania Nishtar, explained that the First Response Fund was designed in collaboration with Gavi donors and partners specifically to provide rapid early funding for emergencies such as mpox.
Nishtar noted: “Using it today to fund the first direct transaction for vaccines in support of equitable access and the global response, just over a month since mpox was declared a public health emergency, takes us a long way towards our goal of protecting those most at risk.
“We are committed to working with affected governments and our partners to turn these vaccines into vaccinations as quickly and effectively as possible and, over time, to build a global vaccine stockpile if sufficient funding is secured for Gavi’s work through 2030. We thank our donors for enabling us to act rapidly by committing funds to the First Response Fund before an emergency occurred.”
On his part, the President and CEO of Bavarian Nordic, Paul Chaplin, said: “We are pleased to sign this agreement and strengthen our commitment to support Gavi and other global health partners, who have demonstrated strong leadership in making life-saving vaccines available for the vulnerable populations in developing countries for decades.
“The doses secured through this agreement will significantly increase the availability of mpox vaccines for African countries, and we are pleased that Gavi has selected our MVA-BN vaccine, which has proven highly effective during the global mpox outbreak in 2022.”