Aug 19 (Reuters) - Shares of some mpox vaccine and drug developers jumped sharply on Monday in premarket trading, putting them on track to extend gains from last week as concerns over an outbreak of the virus rise.
Shares of GeoVax Labs GOVX.O and Tonix Pharmaceuticals TNXP.O led the gains. Both the companies, which have a combined market capitalization of less than $50 million, do have any products on the market.
GeoVax's shares rose 47.9% to $10.44, while Tonix jumped 41% to 63 cents.
Emergent BioSolutions' shares EBS.N rose 5.4% to $11.32 premarket. Its vaccine, approved for smallpox, has been used as an mpox shot, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is yet to approve its application for use against the virus.
A variant of mpox has spread rapidly in Africa, prompting the World Health Organization to declare mpox a global public health emergency last Wednesday.
Europe's disease prevention agency said on Friday more imported cases will appear in the region, a day after Sweden reported its first case of mpox linked to the strain.
Danish-listed shares of Bavarian Nordic BAVA.CO, which makes an mpox vaccine, were down 4.1% at 271.80 Danish crowns ($40.22). They had jumped 20% on Friday, and rose 50% last week on growing concerns over the virus.
Siga Technologies' shares SIGA.O were up 1.3%. The stock fell 20% on Thursday after the company's mpox drug failed to meet the main goal in a study.
($1 = 6.7584 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)