European Commission secures purchase of 109,090 doses of Bavarian Nordic monkeypox vaccine

The European Commission has announced that it reached an agreement with the company Bavarian Nordic to purchase 109,090 doses of third-generation monkeypox vaccine.

The purchases will be available to EU Member States, Norway, and Iceland. Deliveries could start at the end of June. European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides announced that the next batches are expected to be delivered between July and mid-August.

This is the first purchase of its kind that has been made through the European health programme, EU4Health. The purchases were made by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)—responsible for implementing, among other things, the EU4Health programme—on behalf of the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA).

For Mrs Kyriakides, this initiative demonstrates the relevance of the structure implemented in order to respond to this epidemic.

Stefan De Keersmaecker, the European Commission’s spokesperson specifically for the health portfolio, emphasised that this acquisition took place in an overall context of tension regarding these vaccines—which are in high demand, whereas their supply is limited. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)