Serum Institute To Give MPox Vaccines In India

The pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic from Denmark has recently entered a licensing and manufacturing agreement for its mpox vaccine with Serum Institute.

Bavarian Nordic will transfer technology to Serum Institute to supply the mpox shots for the Indian market, as part of the agreement between the two companies. Contract manufacturing will be carried out by the Serum Institute on a profit-sharing model with Bavarian Nordic to help expand global capacity, the Danish pharmaceutical company said on Monday. It is one of the few manufacturers of mpox vaccine in India. the firm has also played a pivotal role controlling the disease during 2022.

The mpox virus is classified into two clades, I and II, which are further subdivided into clade IA, clade IB and clade IIA and clade IIB.

According to the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC), the outbreak of clade II mpox had been detected in 1 lakh plus cases across 122 countries in the world, including 115 countries where mpox was not previously reported.

Approximately 1,200 people in Africa have died due to mpox, as per African Union's health agency. The agency has also warned that the epidemic was 'going out of control'.