Biopharmaceutical company, Siga Technologies (SIGA.O) has made its first commercial sale of its mpox therapy in Africa, supplying the antiviral treatment Tpoxx to Morocco, Reuters reported.
This agreement comes as part of a contract initiated by the country’s health ministry in response to potential outbreaks of the disease.
Although Tpoxx has been available in Africa through clinical trials and the World Health Organization’s emergency use access protocol amid the current mpox outbreak, this marks a significant step for Siga on the continent.
The therapy is approved in the U.S. and Canada for smallpox treatment and is authorized in Europe and the UK for smallpox, mpox, cowpox, and complications from the vaccinia virus.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month that the outbreak remains uncontrolled, following the WHO’s declaration of it as a public health emergency of international concern in August due to a newly identified variant.
According to the WHO, two cases of mpox have been confirmed in Morocco this year.
The disease, formerly known as monkeypox, was first detected in humans in the DRC in 1970.
There are two subtypes of the virus: clade 1 and clade 2.
The deadlier clade 1 has been endemic in the Congo Basin in central Africa for decades.
The less severe clade 2 has become endemic in parts of West Africa.
Mpox can spread human-to-human through sexual or close physical contact. Symptoms include fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.
The virus gained international prominence in May 2022, when a less deadly strain called clade 2b spread around the world, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men.
Between January 2022 and June 2024, 208 deaths and more than 99,000 mpox cases were recorded across 116 countries, according to the WHO.
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