Rostec CEO Vladimir Artyakov said in an interview with Rossiya-24 channel that the state corporation’s vaccine against smallpox is effective in the fight against the monkey pox virus in 85% of cases. Rostec can produce an enhanced version of the vaccine if necessary.
“What we actually produce is vaccines against smallpox. But we examined the situation with monkey pox and found out that our vaccine kills monkey pox in 85% of cases. If the monkey pox suddenly appears in the country, we will use this vaccine, but we will also improve it,” TASS quotes Artyakov as saying.
The Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor previously reported that the vaccine against smallpox will be able to provide protection against monkey pox (there is no specific vaccine against it).
In May, Rostec announced its readiness to produce 10 million doses of smallpox vaccine annually.