Health Access Groups Push Gavi, UNICEF to Negotiate Fair Price of Mpox Vaccines for Equitable Rollout
WASHINGTON, DC – As mpox cases surge in multiple African countries, health access groups are pushing Gavi and UNICEF to create transparency in contract negotiations and ultimately, get a fair price for millions of doses of Jynneos, Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine.
In a letter Tuesday, Public Citizen, MSF Access Campaign, Partners In Health, People’s Medicine Alliance, Health GAP and other groups told Gavi and UNICEF that they must use their purchasing power to negotiate affordable prices for these vaccines.
“Price matters for access, and Bavarian Nordic’s price for mpox vaccines is far, far too high. The world can’t afford Gavi and UNICEF sitting on the sidelines of pricing. As the world’s largest vaccine purchasers for the global south, Gavi and UNICEF must use their power to negotiate affordable cost-plus pricing and ensure that public funds are spent responsibly and effectively,” said Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines director.
The Africa CDC estimates at least 10 million doses are needed to vaccinate across the continent. WHO estimates doses will cost $50 to $75 each. Unless Gavi and UNICEF negotiate a much lower price than this, meeting the need would, at best, entirely deplete the Gavi $500 million fund, leaving no money for vaccine delivery, health workers and awareness campaigns, or for the remaining seven years of pandemic first response work to which the fund is dedicated.
Public Citizen research found multiple global manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries using similar manufacturing processes as Bavarian Nordic’s selling vaccines for $4 or less per dose – a fraction of the price of Jynneos. In the past week, Public Citizen called on Bavarian Nordic to be open about its pricing and prioritize lowering the price of Jynneos for the sake of public health.
Brook Baker, Senior Policy Analyst with Health Gap, said Gavi and UNICEF are “duty-bound” to negotiate the lowest possible prices and pressure Bavarian Nordic and other mpox vaccine rights holders to license and transfer technology for production in developing countries.
“Gavi and UNICEF now have a green light from WHO to procure mpox vaccines for use in African countries, especially the Democratic Republic of the Congo, experiencing increasingly dangerous mpox infections, but at what price?” said Baker. “Bavarian Nordic holds a monopoly position at present on the supply, price and distribution of its mpox vaccine.”
Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni, People’s Medicines Alliance Policy Co-Lead, said the same inequities from the COVID-19 pandemic will be repeated in the mpox crisis with disastrous impacts unless immediate actions are taken to ensure rapid access to tests, vaccines and treatments.
“The COVID-19 pandemic exposed what people in the Global South knew already – that even when the need for vaccines was greatest, poorer countries would be sent to the back of the queue,” said Kamal-Yanni. “That private profits would be prioritised over peoples’ lives.”