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Mpox has reminded the world that old viral foes can return with new force. Since 2022, cases have been reported in more than 120 countries—testing health systems, highlighting inequities and illustrating how vaccines save lives only when they reach the people who need them most. Africa right now is experiencing the worst-ever mpox outbreak, which was declared a public health emergency of international concern in 2022 and 2024 and remains a .

�ѱ�dz�—a poxvirus related to the deadly but now eradicated smallpox—can be severe and, in some cases, fatal. Most people with mpox will suffer with flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle aches, low energy and swollen lymph nodes as well as a skin rash featuring pus-filled lesions or blisters that can cover the face and body. Children, pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems, including people living with HIV, face the highest risks.

While licensed vaccines such as Bavarian Nordic’s MVA‑BN and KM Biologics’ LC16m8 offer protection against mpox, availability and authorisation gaps especially in low‑income and middle‑income countries limit their real‑world impact. The result: preventable illness, ongoing transmission and a widening equity gap.

�䷡�ʱ�’s mpox programmeis designed to help close evidence gaps for vulnerable groups through improving and standardising the science that regulators rely on to license vaccines and by partnering across Africa and globally so that these mpox vaccines can swiftly move from the shelves to the shoulders of those who need them most. 

Closing the evidence gap

Our aim is to generate the evidence regulators and public health leaders need to use licensed vaccines confidently in high‑burden settings like in the Democratic Republic of Congo, at the epicentre of the current outbreak, and among populations who may not be currently eligible for vaccination including infants, , pregnant and breastfeeding women. 

In parallel, ����VR��Ƶ is evaluating whether vaccination with Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine could reduce the risk of secondary mpox cases after someone comes into contact with a diagnosed case, data which will also help to guide vaccination strategies and maximise public health impact. Most recently we announced funding for a new study to provide more evidence on the safety and effectiveness of the Lc16m8 vaccine, which has not been deployed previously in mpox outbreaks. Nearly 3 million doses of this vaccine have been donated to the DRC by the Government of Japan to help respond to the ongoing outbreak. 

Confidence, and access, grow when the underlying science is consistent. ����VR��Ƶ is advancing a standardised vaccine assay in partnership with its Centralised Laboratory Network partners (UKHSA and Vismederi), which is being used in the current outbreak to test whether vaccines have generated a sufficient and sustained immune response. We are also collecting blood samples from mpox survivors to work toward a WHO international standard for mpox. Having a global mpox standard will help to harmonise how mpox vaccines are assessed making it easier to compare findings across studies.

Elsewhere, we are strengthening local testing capacity by supporting the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) in the DRC and the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), speeding up high quality readouts looking at the immune responses of people who took part in mpox vaccine trials or other studies. The foundations of this testing capacity in DRC and Uganda were laid through their earlier involvement in �䷡�ʱ�’s Centralised Laboratory Network, designed to support sustainable regional outbreak-preparedness infrastructure.

These enabling science investments are aligned with the , so that outbreak response priorities and research outputs reinforce one another.

From data to doses 

����VR��Ƶ is part of the for mpox alongside WHO, Africa CDC and other leading global health partners. It aims to channel vaccines to regions with high disease burden and to those at highest risk. As of September, 2025, over have been administered in 11 countries.

����VR��Ƶ also plans to work with manufacturers on options to scale-up production to improve equitable access, building the surge capacity that lower income countries can rely on when demand spikes. The goal is to establish an affordable, predictable and sustainable supply that makes access the default not the exception.

Future proofing with next generation platforms

Key to future responses to poxvirus outbreaks will be the ability to rapidly respond to a virus from this family that might evolve epidemic or pandemic potential, coupled with the capability to scale up production of new vaccine doses quickly.

To that end, ����VR��Ƶ has invested in next generation candidates—like BioNTech’s mRNA mpox programme (now in Phase 1/2). In June 2025, ����VR��Ƶ also convened experts to share knowledge on the immune markers generated by the body that correlate with protection against the disease—laying the scientific groundwork for developers of the next generation of mpox vaccines.

Mpox has been, and remains, a wake up call. Totalling over US$100m, �䷡�ʱ�’s mpox investments in clinical and real-world evidence, standards, local lab capacity and next generation R&D are not only designed to help end the current outbreak, they will also help to ensure the next mpox or related poxvirus emergency finds the world better prepared and better able to deliver vaccines where they matter most.