Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic, whose shares jumped on Thursday after the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to raise its highest level of alert in the face of a resurgence of cases of COPD, said it was ready to produce up to 10 million doses of vaccine by 2025.
Africa is currently facing a rise in cases of COPD, following an initial outbreak two years ago.
"We have an additional manufacturing capacity of 2 million doses for 2024 and (a total of) 10 million doses by 2025," Rolf Sass Sorensen, vice-president of Bavarian Nordic, whose vaccine for the prevention of the disease has been approved since 2019, told AFP.
To manufacture these additional doses, the company is waiting for orders from the countries concerned. "We need to see the contracts," he added.
The laboratory currently has some 500,000 doses in stock.
On Tuesday, the African Union's health agency Africa CDC announced that some 200,000 doses would be deployed in Africa, thanks to an agreement with the European Union (EU) and the Danish manufacturer.
At the end of the day on Thursday, on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, the group's share price gained almost 10%. The day before, it had already jumped by 12%.
A total of 38,465 cases of MPOX, formerly known as monkeypox, have been reported in 16 African countries since January 2022, resulting in 1,456 deaths, including an increase of 1,60% cases in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to data released last week by the health agency.
Bavarian Nordic mainly supplies its MPOX vaccine – called Jynneos in the United States, Imvanex in the European Union – to governments and international organisations but began marketing it on the American market in April.
The group will publish its second quarter results on August 22.
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