Feud be­tween two biotechs left near­ly 12M dos­es of mon­key­pox an­tivi­ral on the ta­ble

As the US em­barks on a new de­liv­ery strat­e­gy to stretch out its thin­ning sup­ply of mon­key­pox vac­cines, the need for treat­ments could pick up as cas­es of the virus rise. And the amount of cours­es of one po­ten­tial an­tivi­ral, soon to be clin­i­cal­ly test­ed for ef­fi­ca­cy in hu­mans, was al­most 12 mil­lion more than it is to­day, ac­cord­ing to SEC fil­ings.

While not green­lit for treat­ing mon­key­pox, SIGA’s FDA-ap­proved small­pox an­tivi­ral, Tpoxx, can be re­quest­ed by physi­cians un­der an ex­pand­ed use pro­gram. As of Mon­day, HHS tells End­points News it had tapped in­to more than 15,000 of the 1.7 mil­lion cours­es of Tpoxx that have been stock­piled, but with cas­es climb­ing over the past few weeks, de­mand will like­ly not pe­ter out in the near fu­ture, es­pe­cial­ly if the vac­cine sup­ply runs dry.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER