U.S. pharma company Siga to supply mpox therapy to Morocco marking first African sale

New York-based pharma company, Siga Technologies, announced this week it will be supplying its mpox antiviral therapy to Morocco in its first commercial sale of the drug on the African continent, Reuters reports.

Siga’s Tpoxx therapy has previously been used in Africa through clinical trials and the World Health Organization’s emergency use authorization program. However, this marks the first time the therapy will be commercially available on the continent. The sale comes in response to a request from Morocco’s Ministry of Health, which sought treatments to safeguard its population from the viral disease. 

Siga says Tpoxx, which can be taken orally or intravenously, suppresses the spread of the virus to uninfected cells. It has been approved by U.S. and Canadian regulators for the treatment of smallpox, a virus similar to mpox. In Europe and the UK, it is authorized for the treatment of smallpox, mpox, and cowpox.  

In August, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of mpox, which is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo but has spread to other countries, a public health emergency of international concern.  

“It’s clear that a coordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives,” stated WHO’s Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the time in a press release.  

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported in September that the mpox outbreak remains uncontrolled. WHO data confirms two cases of the virus have been detected in Morocco.