The world’s only monkeypox vaccine maker has admitted its struggles to meet the skyrocketing demand amid the outbreak.
Bavarian Nordic, the biotechnology company behind Jynneos, the only vaccine approved for monkeypox, spoke out amid the rising number of transmissions worldwide.
In an exclusive interview with Bloomberg published Thursday, the company admitted it’s no longer sure it could meet the demand for its vaccine as cases continue to rise across the globe.
In hopes of remedying the situation, the Danish company has started to explore the possibility of collaborating with multiple production partners and outsourcing some of its production.
“[Bavarian Nordic] is in conversations with multiple companies to further expand manufacturing capacity globally,” a spokesperson for the company told the news outlet via email.
Previously, the company said it could deliver on all orders from its Danish facility. It even claimed that a technology transfer to a third-party would be too cumbersome.
The company’s vice president, Rolf Sass Sorensen, addressed the sudden change in plans in a phone interview with Bloomberg, saying, “It’s a very dynamic market situation.”
“Demand keeps rising, and it’s no longer certain that we can continue to meet the demand we’re facing even with the upgrade of our existing manufacturing site in Denmark,” Sorensen added.
He continued, “We don’t have any concrete negotiations in the works with bulk producers, but we’re investigating and looking at what options there are.”
Based on the latest figures the White House released Thursday, the U.S. has already recorded more than 13,500 confirmed cases, a significant jump from the 9,492 cases the previous week.
The U.S. government has already shipped more than 700,000 vials of the Jynneos vaccine nationwide thus far, including the over 60,000 additional vials shipped on Monday.
On July 15, the White House announced an order with Bavarian Nordic for an additional 2.5 million vials of the monkeypox vaccine amid the sudden rise in transmissions.
The U.S. also has a stockpile of more than 100 million doses of another smallpox vaccine called ACAM2000 that could be used for monkeypox. However, the Emergent BioSolutions vaccine carries a higher risk of side effects, Fierce Pharma reported.