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- The Biden administration Thursday said it is making available 50K treatment courses of SIGA Technologies' Tpoxx (tecovirimat) to jurisdictions next week.
- The antiviral is approved for treatment of smallpox, but can also be used for monkeypox under the US FDA's Expanded Access protocol.
- The White House said that the 50K courses -- nearly five times more than the confirmed number of monkeypox cases in the US -- are being released so they can be prepositioned for easier patient access to the medication.
- Allocation will be based 75% on the number of cases in a jurisdiction and 25% on the number of individuals who are at the highest risk of contracting the virus.
- SIGA (NASDAQ:SIGA) is set to begin human trials of Tpoxx for monkeypox in the UK next week.