WHO has today issued an invitation for manufacturers of mpox vaccines to submit an Expression of Interest for Emergency Use Listing (EUL).

The WHO Director-General announced on 7 August 2024 that he had triggered the process for EUL of mpox vaccines given worrying trends in the disease’s spread. There is a serious and growing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that has now expanded outside the country. A new viral strain, which first emerged in September 2023, has for the first time been detected outside DRC.

The EUL procedure is an emergency use authorization process, specifically developed to expedite the availability of unlicensed medical products like vaccines that are needed in public health emergency situations. This is a time-limited recommendation, based on a risk-benefit approach.