Global mpox vaccine stockpile gets 225,000 doses to stop outbreaks early
Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic will donate 75,000 doses of its mpox vaccine to the global emergency stockpile run by WHO, UNICEF, the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières, and sell it another 150,000. The Gavi-funded stockpile has been running since August. It is a starter reserve: neither the company nor Gavi has said when the doses will arrive.
When an mpox outbreak flares up, every week counts. That is why the new global mpox vaccine stockpile has just received a big boost: Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic said on 27 October that it will donate 75,000 doses of its MVA-BN vaccine and supply another 150,000 under a newly signed contract.
The caveat: the company’s statement does not say when the doses will be delivered, and Gavi has not published how much it put in to launch the stockpile.
Vaccines on the shelf for outbreak day
The stockpile was launched on 27 August and is coordinated by the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision (ICG), made up of WHO, UNICEF, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and Médecins Sans Frontières. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, funds it.
It works like the ones that already exist for cholera, meningitis, yellow fever and Ebola: a country facing an outbreak asks for doses, the ICG allocates them by need and expected impact, and the vaccines are shipped. The aim is that getting there in time does not depend on who can pay the most. “Any country should be able to use this tool to save lives,” Gavi CEO Sania Nishtar said at the launch.
Vials of MVA-BN vaccine in Sierra Leone as mpox vaccination began in 2025. Image: Gavi/2025/Dominique Fofanah.
Lessons from the last emergency
The stockpile builds on the access and allocation mechanism set up in a hurry in 2024, when WHO declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern. Between January 2022 and July 2026, 145 countries and territories reported 190,683 confirmed cases and 529 deaths, two thirds of them in Africa, according to figures Gavi cited in August.
“Infectious diseases do not stop at borders, and communities need timely access to protection when outbreaks occur,” said Hitesh Sahni, senior vice president at Bavarian Nordic.
Next comes delivery of the doses to the stockpile, which the ICG will release as soon as a country asks for them.
