US to distribute 800,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine

NEW YORK – Easing a shortfall that has plagued the fight against monkeypox for weeks, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Wednesday that it had cleared nearly 800,000 additional doses of vaccine for use.

The Biden administration said it will announce allocations for states and jurisdictions today.

The new doses should greatly expand the supply in the United States, but some experts questioned whether they would be enough to meet demand.

Since May, the country has confirmed 3,600 cases, among the highest tallies in the world, and the figure is almost certainly an underestimate.

Stores of Jynneos, a monkeypox vaccine, have been constrained since the start of the outbreak.

The vaccine is made by Bavarian Nordic, a small company in Denmark.

Although federal agencies helped develop Jynneos, the strategic national stockpile held just a few thousand doses when the outbreak began, and the Biden administration has moved slowly in acquiring more.

US officials have now ordered nearly seven million doses, which will arrive in batches over the next months.

So far, the administration has shipped about 320,000 doses to states.

The FDA said Wednesday that it had completed an inspection of Bavarian Nordic’s manufacturing plant in Denmark earlier this month and had determined that the vaccine produced there met its standards. Given the rising need, the agency said it had “facilitated the shipment of manufactured doses” to the US, but declined to say whether the doses had arrived in the country. –