Gavi, known for assisting low-resource countries with vaccines primarily for childhood diseases, has broadened its scope following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The organisation’s “First Response” fund, created after high-income countries prioritised their own vaccine needs early in the pandemic, now has up to $500 million available to address urgent health crises.
This fund is designed to respond to emergencies declared by global health authorities, including the recent mpox outbreak in Africa, which has been designated a health emergency by the World Health Organization and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The funds, primarily leftover from COVID-19 donations by governments and global health organisations, are ready to be used for mpox vaccines. Gavi’s chief executive, Sania Nishtar, confirmed the availability of these funds but noted that several steps are necessary before deployment.
These include formal vaccine requests from affected countries and approval from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which declared mpox a global health emergency on Wednesday.
The World Health Organisation is expected to complete its evaluation of the vaccines by September, and Gavi and UNICEF, which work together on vaccine procurement, are awaiting this approval.
Nishtar also mentioned that Gavi is in preliminary discussions with the manufacturers of two widely used mpox vaccines, Bavarian Nordic and KM Biologics, with official orders contingent on the WHO’s green light.
Bavarian Nordic has pledged to produce 10 million doses of its mpox vaccine by the end of 2025.
A spokesperson for the company stated, “We have significant capacity in place and can easily handle the delivery of all doses needed for the outbreak,” but noted that interest from buyers has been lacking.
KM Biologics also expressed its readiness to collaborate with the World Health Organisation to support the effort.
Gavi is working with countries like the United States, which has had 50,000 doses available for donation for months, and with Bavarian Nordic, which has contributed 15,000 doses.
Nevertheless, the Democratic Republic of Congo, heavily impacted by the outbreak, has not yet officially requested the vaccines.
This delay, combined with the need for legal arrangements and deployment plans, is slowing the process.
Congo’s Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba Mulamba stated that the country requires 3 million doses.
“It is crucial to mobilise the international community,” he emphasised during a press conference on Thursday.