Monkeypox -- May 21, 2022

A reader quickly noted that the "k" in monkeypox is silent. LOL.

The reader was correct. 

As a public health problem, monkeypox will be nowhere as severe as Covid-19 but it will cause much more alarm among parents and grandparents. 

I wasn't going to post this on the "Bakken blog" (I posted it elsewhere earlier) but thought some readers might be interested. 

The most interesting article for me? The September 24, 2019, FDA announcement (see below). 

The biggest question? How soon will the US military begin smallpox / monkeypox vaccinations again? Apparently, the Europeans are taking this seriously.

Stocks mentioned, action May 20, 2022:

• Emergent BioSolutions Inc (EBS): up 12%; up $4; trading at $36
• Chimerix, Inc (CMRX): up 7%, then up 13% after-hours; trading at $2.35 at the close; after-hours, $2.65. One could buy a lot of CMRX at $3 / share.
  
• Bavarian Nordic A/S (BVNRY): up 4%; up 40 cents; trading at $11.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them.

As monkeypox quickly spreads, a handful of biotechs spring into action, May 20, 2022. Link here.

Emergent Biosolutions’ stock jumped more than 10% on Friday, four days after the company plumped down $225 million for the rights to Chimerix’s smallpox vaccine. 

Chimerix’s stock was up more than 3.8% on Friday. And Bavarian Nordic $BVNRY — which closed a $119 million deal with BARDA to provide the US government with freeze-dried doses of the Jynneos vaccine — was up nearly 2.5%. 

FDA approves first live, non-replicating vaccine to prevent smallpox and monkeypox, September 24, 2019. Link here. 

The FDA granted the approval of Jynneos to Bavarian Nordic A/S. The FDA granted the application Priority Review and with this approval, the FDA issued a material threat medical countermeasure (MCM) priority review voucher to Bavarian Nordic A/S. 

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended by the 21st Century Cures (Cures) Act, authorizes the FDA to award priority review vouchers to sponsors of approved material threat MCM product applications that meet certain criteria.

Emergent to buy Sanofi smallpox vaccine and take on CDC contract, July 18, 2017. Link here.

Smallpox vaccine, what you need to know, New York Health, April, 2003.

Scientific American, March 3, 2003. Link here.

There are two types of smallpox vaccine that would be administered in the event of an outbreak in the U.S. Both vaccines use the same strain of vaccinia virus, the so-called New York Board of Health strain, and they differ only in the way they are prepared. 

The old Dryvax vaccine, made in the 1970s by Wyeth Laboratories, was made by purifying vaccinia virus obtained from pustules removed from deliberately infected cows. The vaccine currently produced by Acambis-Baxter Laboratories is made using modern tissue-culture methods: the vaccinia is grown in cells in a laboratory and then purified. 

See FDA announcement, 2019, above.