On August 15th, Financial Associated Press (editor Zhao Hao) announced again that the monkeypox epidemic constitutes a "public health emergency of international concern," and the stock prices of companies related to monkeypox vaccines and virus testing quickly reacted accordingly.

Affected by this, Danish monkeypox vaccine manufacturer Bavarian Nordic's two securities BVNKF and BVNRY on the US OTC market rose by 40.7% and 32.52%, respectively; vaccine developer Emergent BioSolutions rose 11.65%, and Chimerix rose 9.47%.

During the Asian period on Thursday, Japanese medical tool supplier Precision System Science Co. rose more than 39%, reaching the highest level since December last year. The company is engaged in the development, manufacturing, and sales of in vitro diagnostics such as gene detection, protein detection, and automation equipment.

The overall strength of the monkeypox concept in A-shares, among which Hicin pharmaceuticals rose 20CM, Yatai pharmaceuticals rose 9.88%, Unitegen, Bohui innovation rose more than 5%, and Zhijiang biology rose 4.29%.

Some analysis pointed out that the number of new crown cases in some parts of Asia has rebounded significantly in recent times, and the latest monkeypox epidemic has attracted investors' attention to the medical sector once again.

Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease. The initial symptoms of human infection with monkeypox virus include fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, and swollen lymph nodes, which can then develop into extensive facial and bodily rashes. Most infected individuals recover within a few weeks, but some can become seriously ill or even die.

This is the second time in more than two years that the WHO has declared the monkeypox epidemic a "public health emergency of international concern." The organization's data shows that the number of reported monkeypox cases exceeds 0.0156 million so far this year, surpassing the total number of cases last year, with 537 deaths.

Yesterday, Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin told the media, "We have inventory and production capacity, what we lack are orders." He added that the company has prepared about 0.3 million doses of vaccines that can be shipped immediately and has donated more than 0.215 million doses of vaccines to Africa along with the European Union.

Chaplin said that by the end of this year, Bavarian Nordic can provide a total of 2 million doses of vaccines to African countries; by 2025, it will provide an additional 8 million doses of vaccines, "It's already the end of August, and we really need to speed up decision-making to do this."

Jynneos, a smallpox and monkeypox vaccine developed by Bavarian Nordic (Imvanex in Europe and Imvamune in Canada), was approved by European Medicines Agency in 2013 and by the US FDA in 2019, and is the only monkeypox vaccine approved in Europe and the United States.

Imvanex Vaccine

According to the Africa CDC, the vaccine is priced at about $100 per dose and is one of the few vaccines that can prevent monkeypox. Two other vaccines, which come from Emergent Biosolutions Inc. and KM Biologics, respectively, are also available even though they have not been widely approved.

Manish Bhargava, a fund manager at Straits Investment Holdings in Singapore, said the recent outbreak of monkeypox in Africa may evoke memories of the new crown epidemic. "Given that the epidemic is still in its early stages, investors are expected to remain cautious and wait for further data before reacting."

"We believe that the impact of monkeypox on the industry is limited, and the WHO statement will not have a significant impact on the biopharmaceutical industry or the broader economy."