Europe’s drug regulator on Friday recommended an alternative monkeypox vaccine dosing regimen aimed at stretching the limited global supply of doses, similar to the United States’ approach.
According to a clinical trial of around 500 adults, a smaller dose given just beneath the skin produced similar levels of antibodies as a normal subcutaneous injection that requires five times as much vaccine.
Following advice from the European regulator’s emergency task force (ETF), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement that national authorities “may decide as a temporary measure” to use a lower dose of Imvanex injected intradermally.
Despite some unknowns remaining, the smaller dose was recommended to protect at-risk individuals, namely men who have sex with men, during the current monkeypox outbreak “while supply of the vaccine remains limited.”…