From July through August 2026, the CDC received 17% more rabies-related inquiries than during the same period last year, and the spike is now hitting the supply chain. Kamada confirmed this week that KedRAB, its human rabies immunoglobulin approved for post-exposure prophylaxis since 2017, has sufficient inventory and manufacturing capacity to meet the accelerated U.S. demand. The confirmation came directly in response to a CDC Health Alert Network advisory that flagged both the volume surge and a rise in PEP administration errors nationwide.
The supply question matters because post-exposure prophylaxis is time-sensitive: rabies immunoglobulin must be infiltrated around the wound site and administered alongside the first vaccine dose immediately after a potentially rabid animal contact. Any gap in product availability translates directly into patients receiving incomplete or delayed PEP. Kamada operates three FDA-approved plasma collection centers in Texas, in Houston, San Antonio, and Beaumont, with the Houston and San Antonio sites each designed to collect roughly 50,000 liters of specialty plasma annually at full capacity. That domestic footprint gives the company a short logistics chain to U.S. distributors, which becomes relevant when demand spikes without much warning.
The CDC advisory does more than validate a demand trend; it also documents a quality problem running alongside the volume increase. Errors in how PEP is being administered are rising in parallel with exposure counts, which means clinicians on the front lines are managing unfamiliar protocols under higher caseloads. That context likely drove the advisory’s urgency and, in turn, prompted Kamada’s public supply confirmation rather than a routine commercial statement.
What to watch is whether the 17% inquiry increase translates into a sustained utilization shift through Q4 or whether it reflects a concentrated summer exposure window that normalizes. Kamada has already guided for a significantly stronger second half of 2026; if rabies PEP demand holds at elevated levels into autumn, KedRAB revenue could become a material contributor to that guidance rather than a rounding item.
Jon Napitupulu is Director of Media Relations at The Clinical Trial Vanguard. Jon, a computer data scientist, focuses on the latest clinical trial industry news and trends.
