Top Line
Shares in MPOX vaccine makers such as Bavarian Nordic surged on Thursday after the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency following the spread of the deadly virus in Africa as countries scrambled to mobilize resources to contain the spread, fearing it could spark a new deadly pandemic.
Stocks of the Mpox vaccine rose after the WHO declared a health emergency.
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Key Facts
Shares in Danish company Bayern Nordic rose as much as 17 percent in early trading in Copenhagen on Thursday, before slowing to about 11 percent as trading continued.
The rise builds on a roughly 12% increase from the previous day when the WHO joined Africa’s top public health agencies in declaring the growing MPOX outbreak a public health emergency.
Bayer Nordic is one of only a few companies in the world with an approved MPOX vaccine, and is virtually the only one that is overwhelmingly the preferred choice of global health authorities, as the vaccine it produces carries a much lower risk of side effects.
Bayer Nordic sells the vaccine under three brand names worldwide — Jynneos, Imvamune and Imvanex — and its U.S.-listed shares rose by almost a third, or 33%, in early premarket trading on Thursday.
Shares of Maryland-based Emergent BioSolutions, which acquired the smallpox vaccine ACAM2000 from French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi in 2017, rose nearly 12% by market close on Wednesday but fell more than 3.5% in premarket trading on Thursday. Variola is related to variola, and the vaccine is also thought to be effective in preventing smallpox.
Tonix Pharmaceuticals, a U.S. company with an experimental vaccine in early-stage testing for horsepox and potentially for smallpox and measles, also fell 3.6 percent in pre-market trading, paring a 2.7 percent gain from the previous day.
What treatments are available for Mpox?
Few specific treatments have been approved for mpox, and many have not been extensively tested for the disease because of the small number of cases. There is even less data on treatments approved for smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980, but given the similarities between the two viruses, treatments that work on one are likely to have at least some effect on the other. While they cannot prevent infection, treatments could help patients, reduce symptoms and disease progression, and potentially lower the risk of further infection. The antiviral drug tecovirimat, approved for use against smallpox based on animal studies, is not approved in the United States to treat mpox patients, but was made available for this purpose under emergency protocols during the 2022 outbreak. The drug, marketed as Tpoxx by Siga Technologies, is still undergoing trials to be approved specifically for mpox. Siga shares were up nearly 27% at market close on Wednesday and were up more than 1% in premarket trading on Thursday.
News Peg
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, declared the disease a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on Wednesday, shortly after the continent’s top public health agency, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, took a similar step. The disease, formerly known as monkeypox, spreads mainly through close contact with infected people, animals, or contaminated objects such as towels, and usually causes a mild illness with symptoms such as fever, swollen lymph nodes, and a characteristic pus-filled rash. But the virus can also be fatal, with young children, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems at particular risk. Africa CDC officials say there have been more than 17,000 suspected cases and more than 500 deaths so far this year. The virus variant causing the outbreak is another form of the mpox variant that was responsible for the 2022 pandemic. At the time, the virus spread globally, particularly through gay and bisexual men’s networks, due in part to a new way of transmission through sexual contact, but data shows it is much more deadly than that variant (about 10% compared to less than 1%). The virus has historically been relatively restricted to parts of Central Africa, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo, with sporadic outbreaks mainly linked to contact with animals. The current outbreak suggests that the virus has mutated and is now much more transmissible between humans, significantly increasing the risk of a large-scale outbreak. According to the Africa CDC, cases have been reported in at least 13 African countries in recent months, four of which had never previously reported transmission of that type of virus, although most cases are still reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Big numbers
300,000 doses. That’s all the MPOX vaccine Bayern Nordic says it has available to ship immediately. The company, along with the European Commission, has reportedly already donated more than 215,000 doses. CEO Paul Chaplin told media outlets that the company will be able to supply a total of 2 million doses to Africa by the end of the year, with a further 8 million in 2025.
Points to note
Chaplin said the scale-up of vaccinations is ready, but countries need to mobilize quickly to secure vaccines. “We’re already nearing the end of August, so we really need fast decision-making to get vaccinations going,” he told Bloomberg. Africa CDC officials have made it clear that vaccinations are a key part of the epidemic containment strategy, but vaccines are expensive, especially by local standards, and it’s unclear where the money will come from to procure the needed vaccines. Director-General Jean Kaseya said the vaccines cost about $100 per dose. That figure represents about one-sixth of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s GDP of about $650 per capita.
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