Several African and ex-Soviet countries have expressed interest in purchasing Russian smallpox and mpox vaccines, as well as testing systems and antiviral treatments, Russia’s consumer watchdog told Reuters and health.
The vaccine, called Orthopoxvac, was developed by the Vektor laboratory in Siberia and registered by the Russian Health Ministry in 2022 following clinical trials that Vektor said showed the vaccine was safe and effective.
The results of the trials have not been published.
“The countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as the African countries most affected by the smallpox epidemic, have expressed interest in acquiring Russian treatments,” the body said monitoring at Reuters.
He did not specify which countries had expressed interest.
Smallpox is a viral infection that spreads through close contact, causing flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. Most cases are mild, but the disease can also be fatal.
In August, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global public health emergency following a smallpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that spread to neighboring countries and beyond .
The governments of the DRC and Rwanda did not respond to requests for comment on the Russian vaccine.
Spokespeople for the health ministries of Burundi and Uganda, as well as a senior public health official in Nigeria, said they were unaware of efforts to buy Russian vaccines against smallpox.
A senior public health official in Uzbekistan said the government did not need the vaccine because there had been no cases of smallpox in the country.
The governments of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia did not immediately react.
Some countries, including the United States and France, have pledged to donate doses of the two main vaccines against the virus, made by Bavarian Nordic and KM Biologics, to fight the epidemic.
Scientific papers published by Vektor researchers show that the laboratory has been working on the vaccine since at least 2015. However, it has not yet published trial results, and the vaccine has not been approved by regulators. outside Russia.
Vektor, which operates under the consumer and health watchdog, did not respond to a request for comment.
The watchdog did not say how much vaccine Russia had in stock. Russia has recorded two cases of smallpox so far, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
