By Zainab Shafiq 
A Danish pharmaceutical firm, Bavarian Nordic, increases production capacity to meet the increasing global demand for the mpox virus vaccine. Immediately after the declaration of the World Health Organization about the outbreak of mpox in Africa as a global public health emergency, Bavarian Nordic announced it would produce 10 million doses by 2025.
The WHO declaration followed a massive outbreak of the mpox virus, largely in the Democratic Republic of Congo; the country has recorded a 160% increase in cases this year. With more than 38,000 cases and 1,456 deaths in 16 African countries since January 2022, the situation is raising international alarm.
Bavarian Nordic is the company that markets the mpox vaccine under the names Jynneos in the United States and Imvanex in the European Union. It has a stockpile of about 500,000 doses and waits for orders from affected countries before it produces the vaccine on a large scale. The firm has further reserved additional manufacturing capacity of two million doses for 2024 and plans for that number to hit 10 million in 2025.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have already deployed more than 200,000 doses of the vaccine across Africa in partnership with the European Union and Bavarian Nordic. This cooperation will help reduce the contracted disease, now posing a major public health concern globally.
The declaration by WHO has an immediate effect on the market performance of Bavarian Nordic. Its shares were nearly eight percent higher on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. Of note, the strategic increase in production capacity by the company is likely to largely contribute to the global response to the mpox outbreak.
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