(Boursier.com) — While global health authorities alerted Thursday to the appearance of around 100 proven or suspected cases of monkeypox in several countries, the shares of biotechnology companies that produce vaccines and treatments for smallpox flew to Wall Street…
Thus, the American group Siga Technologies climbed 17% on Thursday, and was still soaring 43% (!) on Friday, to $12.40 in session, after being approached in Europe for orders for its anti-smallpox drug TPOXX(R) (tecovirimat) in the face of a possible monkeypox epidemic.
Siga said it is “well positioned” in terms of supply if these orders are confirmed. Several governments have stockpiled the drug, which has been approved to treat human smallpox in the United States, but also in Europe for the orthopoxvirus family that includes monkeypox and cowpox. In the United States, Siga also received FDA approval on Thursday for the intravenous form of this treatment.
Vaccines and treatments available
On Thursday, the title (ADR) of the Danish company Bavarian-Nordic exploded 73% to $10.83 on the New York Stock Exchange as the company said it had secured a contract with an unnamed European country to supply its smallpox vaccine. The title still gained more than 5% on Friday.
Another vaccine manufacturer, the American Emergent BioSolutions, jumped 11.8% on Thursday, and still more than 11% on Friday in session, to $35. The company had landed a $2 billion contract in 2019 to supply its smallpox vaccine to the US Health Department for stockpiling. On Monday, Emergent announced that it had acquired exclusive rights to the worldwide distribution of the company’s smallpox treatment. Chimerix (+21.5% to $2.2 Thursday night). Royalties revenue from this treatment, Tembexa, approved by the FDA in 2021, could exceed $337.5 million for Emergent.
Finally, the actions of Tonix Pharmaceuticals jumped more than 15% on Thursday, and by the same amount on Friday, to rise to $2.55. This American company is developing a vaccine against smallpox and its variant, monkeypox.
Meeting at WHO on the risks of monkeypox
More than 100 confirmed or presumed cases of the disease have been identified in recent days, notably in Great Britain, France (one suspected case), Portugal, Spain, Italy, the United States, Canada and Australia .
According to experts, this disease is not likely to cause an epidemic as serious as Covid, but it remains crucial to contain it quickly. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that it was organizing a meeting on monkeypox that same day.
The meeting concerns the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards (STAG-IH)which advises the organization on diseases that may pose a global threat.
Smallpox officially eradicated in the 1980s
Originally from Central and West Africa, this disease (“monkeypox” in English) is transmitted to humans through contact with wild animals, rodents or primates. But it was potential human-to-human transmissions, usually rare, that this time alerted the experts.
Human smallpox has been officially eradicated since 1980 thanks to massive vaccination campaigns, but the vaccine, which also protects against monkeypox, has since been phased out…