Zain Rizvi: How a Danish Company Grabbed Control of the Monkeypox Vaccine
Zain Rizvi, research director for Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program, explains in The American Prospect how German government science and American public money underpinned the development of Jynneos, but one Danish company now controls it entirely.
“The U.S. government—primarily through the NIH and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)—funded clinical studies, dose purchases, new formulation development, and even the qualification of a new production facility.
Public records show the U.S. has poured $1.97 billion since 2003 into Jynneos. Millions more was likely spent supporting independent clinical studies run by the NIH and CDC. In total, U.S. support for the vaccine likely exceeds $2 billion, according to my research at Public Citizen.
Aside from financing, the U.S. government has carried out its own research directly. In 2015, Army scientists, subsidized indirectly by BARDA, ran a pivotal clinical trial comparing the immune response from Jynneos to a traditional smallpox vaccine in U.S. service members stationed in South Korea. It was also U.S. officials who first raised the possibility of getting Jynneos authorized for monkeypox, because the two viruses are similar. Bavarian Nordic did not initially request such regulatory authorization.”