
The Biden government is making all the necessary efforts for the vaccine and treatment of Monkeypox by partnering with AmerisourceBergen. The number of cases in the US has reached an all-time high of 20,000 with the disease spreading in remote locations as well.
This agreement aims to increase the number of shipments and distribution sites for the Jynneos vaccine from Bavarian Nordic and the TYPOXX medication for infected people from Siga. The agreement worth $19.8 million is an initiative by the current U.S. government to get through this pandemic and help as many people as possible.
Bavarian Nordic is a biotechnology firm with an extensive network worldwide and is working to produce, develop, and market vaccines for several diseases. Based in New York City, Siga is a well known name for providing medical drug solutions for monkeypox, cowpox, and smallpox.
As per the agreement, AmerisourceBergen will supply the vaccination in a batch of 2500 shipments per week on a weekly basis. TYPOXX is kept at room temperature while Jynneos is supplied frozen. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, five places per jurisdiction are receiving items from the United States.
Bob Fenton, the White House’s nationwide monkeypox response manager, said in a release that “We have heard from officials about the significance of ensuring that the vaccines are given to more places, which is exactly what this contract aims to do”.
Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary of HHS, gave a statement that “This new commercial contract will help deliver treatments and vaccines to several communities and in need individuals more quickly leading to ending the current outbreak as early as possible”.
According to the HHS, The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) had distributed more than 37,000 courses of TYPOXX and close to 800,000 vials of Jynneos across the country, till September 2. The CDC reports that by the end of August, more than 350,000 vaccinations had been given. The government provides TYPOXX and Jynneos free of cost.
Initially, there were only about 5 locations per state and other jurisdictions where the national stockpile was being shipped.
In addition to the 1.6 million doses it had obtained in June, the United States said three weeks ago that it would supply an extra 1.8 million doses of the monkeypox vaccine. The same day, Bavarian Nordic announced that its production partner Grand River Aseptic had increased its capacity to create the shot in order to cover a wider scale of population.
Additionally, Bavarian Nordic announced that it will send 170,000 more doses of Jynneos to Europe for distribution in Norway and Iceland in light of rising demand from these countries.
TPOXX was given approval by the U.S. Food and Treatment Administration in 2018 to treat smallpox, but the CDC has created a special “kind use” procedure that allows the drug to also be used to treat monkeypox.
The Biden government requested a short-term resolution from Congress this week, along with other “essential needs,” that include billions of funds for monkeypox and COVID-19. The reason is that these diseases have created havoc and affected a large number of people leading to more cases and fatalities.