The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday its partners like Gavi and Unicef can start buying mpox vaccines before they are approved in a bid to get inoculations to Africa faster as the continent battles an escalating outbreak of the virus.
Traditionally, organizations like Gavi, which helps lower-income countries buy vaccines, can only start purchasing shots once they have approval from the WHO. But the rules have been relaxed in this instance to get talks moving, as the WHO’s approval is due in a few weeks.
Two vaccines, made by Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic and Japan’s KM Biologics, are already approved by regulators around the world, including the United States and Japan, and have been in widespread use for mpox since 2022. Around 1.2 million people have had Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine in the United States alone. The WHO is expected to grant an emergency licence to the shots in September.
The German government is examining whether any available national mpox vaccine doses could be donated, the health ministry said in a status report for August that was seen by Reuters on Friday.
The ministry said it has given its remaining stock of the Jynneos vaccine to the defence ministry and the German army.
The federal government has around 117,000 doses of Jynneos, which is being stockpiled by the German army, after Berlin procured it in 2022, a ministry spokesperson said this week.
International aid measures, such as donations from the European Commission, are under way, though details need to be clarified both in Europe and locally, the ministry added.
The European Union has urged its members to co-ordinate their donations of mpox vaccines to African countries, rather than do this individually. The European Commission has a joint procurement contract with vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic, to buy vaccines for donations.
“European donations will have more immediate impact if they are co-ordinated,” EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a letter dated Aug. 22 that was addressed to the health ministers of EU countries.