Bavarian Nordic, the Danish company behind the vaccine being used to try to stem a global outbreak of monkeypox, is in talks to potentially expand production capacity, its CEO said on Monday.
The Copenhagen-based vaccine maker has a product with the brand name Jynneos, Imvamune or Imvanex depending on geography and which has US and European approval to protect against monkeypox.
Bavarian has annual production capacity of 30 million doses, including the monkeypox vaccine and other vaccines it makes.
It can meet current demand of tens of millions of doses for the monkeypox vaccine, chief executive Paul Chaplin said in an interview with Reuters, but it is working with a US-based contract manufacturer to expand its production capacity.
Chaplin said he hoped that process would be completed later this year, and added the company was also in early talks with others, including contract manufacturers and other vaccine makers, in case a further expansion was needed.
Before the current spate of cases, global health bodies were in discussions with Bavarian Nordic about supplying countries in Africa with the vaccine, Chaplin said, though since the latest outbreak there had been no requests from governments on the continent.
Bavarian has received orders for millions of doses globally, including delivering nearly 7 million vaccine doses this year and next to the US.