This joint initiative by Salud por Derecho, Health Action International (HAI), and Public Citizen raises serious concerns about the lack of transparency and access safeguards in the European Commission’s procurement of mpox vaccines. Despite the MVA-BN vaccine being developed with substantial public funding, including German public science and over $2.3 billion from the United States government, key elements of the procurement framework remain undisclosed. These include pricing, distribution conditions, and provisions governing donations, which are heavily redacted even in documents obtained through a freedom of information request.
The statement highlights how such opacity undermines public accountability, obscures pricing structures, and risks limiting equitable access, particularly for countries in the Global South. It also draws attention to contractual provisions that may restrict donations to certain countries and require manufacturer consent, potentially hindering timely and needs-based allocation of doses. In light of ongoing negotiations at the WHO Intergovernmental Working Group on the Pandemic Agreement, we call for enforceable obligations on transparency, fair pricing, technology transfer, and supply diversification to ensure that publicly funded innovations deliver equitable global access to medical countermeasures. As part of this process, the three organizations have also submitted a joint statement to the WHO Intergovernmental Working Group on the Pandemic Agreement.
