Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic, which makes a vaccine targeting MPOX, announced on Friday that it had asked the European Medicines Agency to extend the use of its serum to adolescents aged 12 to 17.
"The interim results of the clinical study show non-inferiority of immune responses to vaccination against mpox virus and smallpox in adolescents and a safety profile similar to that in adults," Bavarian Nordic wrote in a statement.
In the United States, during the previous MPOX outbreak in 2022, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the vaccine emergency use authorization for adolescents.
Currently, the sharp resurgence of the disease in Africa is mainly due to a new strain, clade 1b, which is more transmissible and more dangerous than previous ones.
The epidemic is partly spread through sexual intercourse, but the virus is also transmitted through non-sexual contact, also threatening children in whom the disease appears more dangerous.
On Thursday, Bavarian Nordic said it was ready to produce up to 10 million doses of vaccines by 2025.
Currently, the laboratory has some 500,000 doses in stock.
On Thursday, a first case of clade 1 was discovered in Sweden, a first outside the African continent.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that further imported cases of mpox could soon be detected in Europe.
The day before, the WHO had triggered its highest level of alert internationally in the face of the resurgence of cases of mpox on the African continent.
In addition, Pakistan reported a first case on its territory on Friday.
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