Following inspection and approval of a Bavarian Nordic manufacturing facility overseas, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last week that it now has access to – and plans to allocate – another 786,000 doses of the company’s JYNNEOS monkeypox vaccine nationwide.
The news coincides with announcements from the city of San Francisco and the state of New York, declaring a public health emergency and an imminent threat, respectively. Vaccine availability, according to HHS, now totals more than 1.1 million doses.
“Our goal is to stay ahead of this virus and end this outbreak. We have a strategy to deploy these additional vaccine doses in a way that protects those at risk and limits the spread of the virus while also working with states to ensure equitable and fair distribution,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said. “These vaccines are the result of years of federal investment and planning.”
The JYNNEOS vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a preventative for both smallpox and monkeypox. HHS began to deploy doses within days of the first reported U.S. cases of monkeypox this year and has partnered with five commercial labs to increase testing as well.
The plan for allocating additional doses will be based on the total population of at-risk people and the number of new cases in each jurisdiction. Orders were opened to states and jurisdictions as of last week.
“Our vaccine allocation strategy allows us to be responsive to where we are seeing cases now and helps us stay ahead of where this outbreak might go in the future,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director, said. “With these additional doses, more will be available for those who are most in need as we work together to contain the outbreak.”