Bavarian Nordic announced on Wednesday that it has signed a contract with an undisclosed European country to provide 440,000 doses of its smallpox and mpox vaccine.
The delivery of the vaccines will take place before the end of 2024, and the Danish drugmaker said it was therefore optimistic on full-year earnings, writing in a stock exchange announcement that it would maintain its full-year guidance at the top end of its range.
On Friday, the company published its interim results, declaring revenue for the first half of DKK 2,259 million – which is roughly 30 percent below the same period last year.
However, revenue from travel health increased by a 15 percent as predicted, while its rabies and tick-borne encephalitis vaccines sold better than expected, said the company.
After confirming its new contract with the unnamed European country, Bavarian Nordic assured in a statement that it could still fulfil its existing commitment to supply up to 10 million mpox doses, plus another 2 million by the end of the year.
The new order “will not impact the remaining capacity that is available to support governments and organizations to address the current WHO declared Public Health Emergency of International Concern for mpox”, it wrote.
Several countries in Africa are currently tackling one of the largest and deadliest known mpox outbreaks to date.
So far in 2024, more than 8,700 mpox cases and over 400 deaths have been reported across seven African countries, 96 percent of which have occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with children accounting for the majority of infections and deaths, according to a report in June from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Wednesday, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute in India announced it will develop an mpox vaccine, causing Bavarian’s share value to drop by 7.7 percent on the Copenhagen Nasdaq exchange.
In April, Bavarian Nordic launched its mpox vaccine in the US, and won a EUR 65 million contract to supply of smallpox vaccines to the EU preparedness programme, rescEU.
The mpox vaccine is yet to become publicly available in African countries.
However in June, Bavarian announced it would donate mpox vaccines to support the public health response in Africa, and in August announced it was preparing for a clinical trial to assess vaccine’s viability in children from 2 to 12 years in the DRC and Uganda.
The trial, scheduled for later this year, may eventually support the vaccine’s approval in the region, said the company in a press release.
“Children and adolescents are disproportionally affected by mpox in the ongoing outbreak in Africa, highlighting the importance and urgency to broaden the access to vaccines and therapies for this vulnerable population,” said Paul Chaplin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Bavarian Nordic.
