With mpox cases still on the rise across Africa, Emergent BioSolutions' 2024 and 2025 orders for its arsenal of medical countermeasures have reached a total roughly $400 million, the company said.
This year, the Maryland-based drugmaker has delivered on orders worth nearly $210 million for its smallpox and mpox vaccine, ACAM2000, and CNJ-016, which is used to treat complications stemming from smallpox vaccination. The rest of 2024 and 2025 will see shipments of “an incremental $185+ million” in orders, the company said in a press release.
“Emergent continues to be a trusted partner to supply medical countermeasures for biodefense and global health preparedness, and these incremental orders demonstrate our ongoing leadership to help address serious viral threats like smallpox and mpox,” CEO Joe Papa said in a statement.
The $400 million figure includes more than $250 million in contract modifications from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) for continued supply of Emergent’s countermeasures.
Outside of the supply contracts, the company has also donated 50,000 doses of ACAM2000 through Direct Relief, which has been providing medical supplies to mpox-affected countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. That announcement came days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the latest mpox outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.
At the time, Emergent CEO Papa noted that Emergent is “ready to scale up response efforts” and could increase its available supply by approximately 40 million vaccine doses if needed. While the company has been supplying its 2007-approved ACAM2000 to the U.S. and other governments for years, the vaccine just recently picked up a new FDA indication for mpox prevention in those at a high risk for infection.
With the nod, ACAM2000 joined Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos as the only FDA-approved mpox vaccines. Emergent has already thrown its hat in the ring to secure a WHO Emergency Use Listing for the shot and is currently in discussions with the agency regarding the next steps.
Last week, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Jean Kaseya, warned in a briefing that mpox is still “not under control” in Africa, with an “increase of cases that is worrying for all of us,” Reuters reported.
Over the span of a week, 2,900 new cases were reported in Africa, including one case in Morocco, which had previously been unaffected. So far, 15 of the 55 member states of the African Union have reported cases. The Democratic Republic of Congo, which is at the center of the outbreak, will start its mpox vaccination campaign a week earlier than previously slated on Oct. 2, according to Reuters.