by Nurat Uthman
Drugmaker Siga Technologies said on Tuesday it would supply its therapy for mpox in Morocco as part of a contract in response to a request from the country’s health ministry for protection against any potential outbreak of the disease.
Although the antiviral therapy Tpoxx has been available in Africa through clinical trials and the World Health Organization’s emergency use access protocol to deal with the current outbreak of mpox virus, this agreement marks Siga’s first commercial sale of the therapy on the continent.
The therapy is approved in the U.S. and Canada for the treatment of smallpox and authorized in Europe and the UK for smallpox, mpox, cowpox and complications from vaccinia virus.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention stated last month that the outbreak is not under control, after the WHO declared it a public health emergency of international concern in August upon identifying the new variant.
Two cases of the disease have been confirmed in Morocco this year according to WHO.
