The World Health Organization (WHO) today triggered the process to grant Emergency Use Listing to two monkeypox vaccines.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the media the listing will accelerate vaccine access in lower-income countries that have not yet approved the drugs.
“Emergency Use Listing also enables partners including Gavi and UNICEF to procure vaccines for distribution,” Tedros said. He also said he would convene an expert group to determine if the spread of monkeypox — renamed mpox — in Africa should be declared a global emergency.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and UNICEF are funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The WHO uses the Emergency Use Listing process to help member states that haven’t already authorized unlicensed vaccines, therapeutics and tests speed up their processes for authorizing them.
During the COVID-19 pandemic Emergency Use Listing was a key mechanism used by member states without structures for granting emergency use authorization to drugs to authorize and distribute the vaccines, working together with the WHO, Gavi and UNICEF, Unlimited Hangout’s Max Jones reported.
Tedros said the Emergency Use Listing helps those same partners procure vaccines for distribution, and that countries like Japan, the U.S. and the European Union are supporting the effort through donations.
He said the Democratic Republic of the Congo is experiencing a severe outbreak of mpox, with 14,000 cases and 511 deaths. Although cases have existed there for decades, the numbers are rising and spreading to new provinces, he said.
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