UNICEF has issued an emergency tender to secure monkeypox vaccines for crisis-affected countries in collaboration with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.
Agreements could be concluded for up to 12 million doses by 2025, depending on manufacturers’ production capacity, the organizations said in a joint statement.
Under the tender, UNICEF will enter into conditional supply agreements with vaccine manufacturers, the statement said. This will allow the organization to procure and ship vaccines without delay once funding, demand, readiness and regulatory requirements are confirmed.
The collaboration, which also includes working with the Vaccine Alliance and the Pan American Health Organization as well as with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, will facilitate the donation of vaccines from existing stockpiles in high-income countries.
The statement added that the World Health Organization is reviewing the information provided by the manufacturers on August 23, and expects to complete the review of the emergency use listing by mid-September.
The organization is considering applications for emergency authorizations for two vaccines produced by Bavaria Nordic and Japan’s KM Biologics.
Earlier in August, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern after the viral infection broke out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and spread to neighboring countries.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 18,000 suspected cases of monkeypox have been reported in Congo so far this year, with 629 deaths, while more than 150 cases have been confirmed in Burundi.
Outside the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries, Sweden and Thailand have confirmed cases of the Clade IB strain of the virus.