By the end of 2024, African countries will have received only 10% of the vaccines they need to control the mpox virus outbreak, reports Oxfam based on an analysis by the People's Medicines Alliance, a global network of organisations working for access to medicines.
High prices for vaccines and tests keep supplies out of reach of the countries most in need.
African disease control and prevention centres need about 10 million vaccine doses to control the outbreak, but only about one million of these have been delivered. Of the estimated 210 million vaccines already produced, more than 99% remain in stocks in richer countries.
Expensive vaccines
The main vaccine is MVA-BN from manufacturer Bavarian Nordic. Unicef recently negotiated a price of $65 (€62) per dose, but that still leaves it almost 2.5 times more expensive than most other vaccines in the range. Vaccines made with similar technology can be produced by manufacturers in vulnerable countries for as little as $5 (€4.8) per dose.
Then there is the LC16 vaccine, produced by Japan's KM Biologics. It is the only vaccine authorised for children, but in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where mpox hits hardest, the first stocks of the 3 million doses promised by Japan are only now starting to arrive. However, KM Biologics alone has produced about 200 million doses.
The mpox tests are also too expensive, Oxfam stressed. Producers charge about $20 (€19.2) per test, which in the DRC is about the annual healthcare budget per person.
