After the Agency’s approval European of Medicines (EMA), the European Commission agreed to the extension of the Imvanex vaccine, which has been used against smallpox since 2013, to combat monkey pox. Since 2019, the product is approved in the United States also against the variant of the disease.
The immunizer approved by the European Commission is from the Danish pharmaceutical group Bavarian Nordic. The decision in Brussels came amid the elevation by the World Health Organization (WHO) to the highest level of alert on the virulence of the smallpox epidemic. By the end of the week, more than 16,000 cases had been recorded, most of them on the European continent.
“This approval for monkeypox is an example of good cooperation between Nordic Bavarian and European regulators. It is an extension of work that normally takes between six to nine months,” the Danish manufacturer welcomed in a press release. The Commission’s green light is valid in all member countries of the European Union, as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
The Imvanex vaccine is marketed under the name Jynneos in the United States, where it has been licensed against monkeypox for three years. This makes it the only licensed vaccine to prevent the disease.
Bavarian Nordic announced a major new order in the US in mid-July, bringing the number of doses ordered in the country to 7 million. An order for 1.5 million doses by an unnamed European country was also discussed last week.
