HHS purchases IV antiviral drug to treat monkeypox

The Department of Health and Human Services this week purchased $26 million worth of intravenous TPOXX (tecovirimat) to treat monkeypox, which the manufacturer expects to deliver next year. Under its contract with SIGA Technologies, HHS may still purchase additional oral and IV TPOXX, an antiviral drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat smallpox and available under an investigational protocol to treat monkeypox. TPOXX is available free to states and territories through the Strategic National Stockpile, which held over 1.7 million treatment courses before the monkeypox outbreak. HHS last week declared the U.S. outbreak, which exceeds 10,000 cases, a public health emergency.