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Bavarian Nordic A/S, the only company with an approved vaccine for monkeypox, said it is preparing to run production overnight to meet rising demand after the virus outbreak was declared an emergency global
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Bloomberg news
Christian Wienberg
Publication date:
July 25, 2022 • 23 minutes ago • 2 minutes read • Join the conversation sp8qy1uzccrrmm4{}liium8e_media_dl_1.png Bloomberg RSS
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(Bloomberg) — Bavarian Nordic A/S, the only company with an approved vaccine for monkeypox, said it is preparing to run production overnight to meet rising demand after the virus outbreak was declared a global emergency.
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Over the weekend, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of monkeypox in about 16,000 people in more than 70 countries in just a few months. This is the highest alert level aimed at gathering more resources globally to curb the outbreak and is the first decision of its kind since the coronavirus began to sweep the world.
“Whatever demand we face, we expect to meet it with our own resources,” Rolf Sass Sorensen, Bavaria’s head of investor relations, said by phone. “A very simple solution is to run our production facility overnight and get more people to work in shifts.”
The Danish vaccine maker can produce 30 million doses a year and has so far not turned down any orders from governments seeking to protect their populations. Sorensen said the drug company already had longer hours and that night shifts and other tweaks would push production above 30 million, but declined to provide a specific figure.
Bavarian said earlier Monday that its Imvanex vaccine now has permission to be labeled for monkeypox and another disease caused by the vaccine virus in Europe. The label extension follows similar approvals in Canada and the US. Shares rose as much as 10% in early trading in Copenhagen and are up more than 150% since the outbreak.
The WHO decision “raises the possibility of further government orders for Imvanex, the only vaccine currently available,” Citigroup analyst Peter Verdult wrote in a note. He estimated that at least 50% of Bavaria’s production capacity could go to the shot and said that Bavaria can get about $100 per dose on average.
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Bavaria has the ability to contract other growers to make the vaccine, but “it would take a long time and it would be expensive, so we’re trying to avoid that,” Sorensen said. He also said it was highly unlikely that governments would issue compulsory licenses to allow other manufacturers to make the vaccine through their own channels.
“The product is not something that can be easily copied, so it is very unlikely that anyone other than us will be able to rapidly scale up production of the vaccine,” he said. “It is not a standard type of product that can be copied; you need a lot of experience to get the vaccine to work. I’d say it’s an art form.”