On Friday Eastern Time, the stock price of Emerging BioSolutions, a US monkeypox vaccine concept stock, experienced significant fluctuations during trading. It rose 17% at the opening and has now turned into a 5% decline, with a previous surge of over 40%.
An emerging biotech company in the United States released a statement after hours on Thursday, stating that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has officially approved the expansion of the indications for a smallpox vaccine produced by the company, allowing the vaccine called ACAM2000 to be used to help high-risk populations prevent monkeypox virus infection.
This is also the second monkeypox vaccine approved by US regulators after Jynneos from Bavarian Nordic, causing emerging biotech stocks to be hotly speculated in the market.
The stock price of Emerging Biosciences, headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, plummeted last year due to its weak contract manufacturing business, but this year its stock price has rebounded with the support of a turnaround plan that includes exiting the contract manufacturing business.
Emerging Biotech currently has a market value of up to $440 million. In early August, the company predicted that sales of government reserve products such as smallpox vaccines and anthrax vaccines could reach up to $490 million.
The company stated that this approval is based on obtained human safety data and animal experimental data. Animal experimental data shows that the smallpox vaccine named ACAM2000 can effectively prevent monkeypox virus infection.
The FDA's approval of ACAM2000 for the prevention of monkeypox virus infection further strengthens and expands our industry-leading smallpox product portfolio, and we are ready to supply the vaccines needed by countries, "said Joe Papa, CEO of Emerging Biotech
ACAM2000 is a single dose vaccine that was first approved by the FDA in 2007 for the prevention of smallpox infection in high-risk populations, administered via a split needle transdermal injection.
However, ACAM2000 cannot be used for people with weaker immune systems. Although it is part of the US government's vaccine reserve, its use was limited during the outbreak of monkeypox in the United States in 2022.
Both Jynneos and ACAM2000 vaccines contain cowpox virus, which has much lower pathogenicity. ACAM2000 uses live, infectious forms of cowpox virus.
Recently, a more contagious and deadly variant of Ib monkeypox has spread around the world, causing concerns. The World Health Organization has declared the monkeypox outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern".
Emerging Biology said that it hopes to help solve the current epidemic, and last week pledged to donate 50000 doses of ACAM2000 vaccine to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and other affected countries to deal with the monkeypox epidemic.