The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has issued an urgent tender to secure monkeypox vaccines for crisis-affected countries in collaboration with the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
A joint statement from these organizations indicated that agreements could be made for up to 12 million doses by 2025, depending on manufacturers’ production capacity.
According to the statement, UNICEF will enter into conditional supply agreements with vaccine producers under this tender. This will allow the organization to purchase and ship vaccines without delay once funding, demand, readiness, and regulatory requirements are confirmed.
The cooperation, which also involves working with the Vaccine Alliance, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), Africa CDC, and WHO, aims to facilitate the donation of vaccines from existing stockpiles in high-income countries.
The statement added that WHO reviewed information provided by manufacturers on August 23 and expects to complete the emergency use listing review by mid-September.
The organization is considering emergency use license requests for vaccines produced by Bavarian Nordic and KM Biologics.
Earlier in August, WHO declared monkeypox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern following outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its neighboring countries.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported over 18,000 suspected monkeypox cases in the Congo this year, with 629 deaths, while more than 150 cases have been confirmed in Burundi.
Beyond the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its neighboring countries, Sweden and Thailand have confirmed cases of the Clade I B strain of the virus.
