Global vaccine group Gavi has up to $500 million to spend to provide vaccines to countries affected by the growing coronavirus pandemic. Ampox outbreak in Africaits chief executive Sania Nishtar told Reuters.
Gavi helps countries with fewer resources buy and deploy vaccines, usually against childhood diseases such as measles, but during the COVID-19 pandemic it has scaled up efforts.
The money is available from the organisation’s “first response” fund, which was set up after high-income countries lagged behind global health agencies like Gavi in procuring vaccines in the early days of COVID-19.
It can be used to deal with health emergencies, like those declared this week by the World Health Organisation and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This amount is largely composed of funds donated by governments and global health funders to combat COVID-19.
“Funding has been made available for vaccines,” Nishtar said, but there are a few hurdles, including official requests for vaccines from affected countries and approval of vaccines from the World Health Organization, which on Wednesday declared ampox a global health emergency.
Gavi and UNICEF, which work together to procure vaccines, cannot do so without WHO approval. On Wednesday, the global health agency said it hopes to finalise its evaluation of vaccines by September.
Nishtar said Gavi is also in early talks with the makers of the two most widely used Mpox vaccines, made by Bavarian Nordic (BAVA.CO) and KM Biologics. Official orders can only proceed after approval, he said.
Bavarian Nordic has said it could make 10 million doses by the end of 2025.
“We already have sufficient capacity and can easily deliver all the doses needed for the outbreak,” a Bavarian Nordic spokesperson said via email.
“But we need someone to buy the doses. No organisation has shown interest yet,” he said, without giving details.
KM Biologics said in an email that it would cooperate with the WHO as much as possible.
Meanwhile, Gavi is coordinating with countries like the United States, which has had 50,000 doses available for donation for months. Bavarian Nordic has also donated 15,000 doses.
However, the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been badly hit by the outbreak, has not yet made an official request for vaccines, which Nishtar said is a reason for the delay, along with arranging legal processes and deployment plans for the vaccination.
At a press conference on Thursday, Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba Mulamba said the country needs 3 million vaccine doses.
“So it was important to wake up the international community,” he said.