EU agrees common purchase of vaccine, antiviral against monkeypox: paper
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[May 27, 2022]
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The European
Union has decided on common purchasing of a vaccine and antiviral to
fight the outbreak of monkeypox, a virus endemic in Africa and usually
rare in other places, Sweden's vaccine coordinator said on Friday.
"After several meetings it has been decided that we will buy both
vaccine and an antiviral treatment," Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter quoted
coordinator Richard Bergstrom as saying.
The paper said the EU would buy Bavarian Nordic's Imvanex and
Tecovirimat from Siga Technologies in the United States.
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Bergstrom said that the EU had not yet signed a contract with either
firm.
"But it will go quickly. We should have a contract ready in a week or so
and maybe some limited deliveries in June," the paper quoted him saying.
Reuters was seeking comment from the EU on the report.
Imvanex is a vaccine against smallpox, to which monkey pox is closely
related.
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![](../images/052722PIX/health5.jpg)
A woman holds a mock-up vial labeled "Monkeypox vaccine" and medical
syringe in this illustration taken, May 25, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/May/27/images/ads/current/chicagost_sda_SHG_2022.png) It has U.S. approval for the
prevention of both smallpox and monkeypox. European Union approval
is for smallpox, although doctors can prescribe it off-label for
monkeypox.
Global health officials have tracked more than 200 suspected and
confirmed cases of the usually mild viral infection in 19 countries
since early May. The monkeypox variant implicated in the current
outbreak has a case fatality rate of around 1%, though no deaths
have been reported so far.
(Reporting by Simon Johnson; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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