The US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has placed a $120m order for bulk manufacturing of smallpox/mpox (monkeypox virus infection) vaccine to Bavarian Nordic.
The bulk of the $96m order would be invoiced to 2023 financials. These include 5.5 million doses of freeze-dried smallpox vaccine, which would partially restore the US stockpile that was used for the 2022 mpox outbreak.
BARDA is a part of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response at the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Bavarian will also manufacture liquid-frozen vaccine doses, valued at $3m, invoiced in 2023. Additionally, the contract included $21m in additional services, which will be delivered in 2024 and 2025.
In the press release, Bavarian CEO Paul Chaplin: “The US Government’s foresight enabled us last year to rapidly respond to the global mpox outbreak by converting the readily available bulk product into final vaccine doses.
“Together with our US manufacturing partner, we have completed the manufacturing of all doses ordered by the US Government during the mpox outbreak.
"However, maintaining the readiness to respond to future health crises is essential, and this new contract will enable us to deliver on the contract for a freeze-dried version of the vaccine, awarded to us by the US Government back in 2017, which aims to strengthen the nation’s preparedness against smallpox.”
Bavarian expects the proceeds from the order, along with the savings from the discontinuation of the RSV programme, to offset the costs of the acquisition of the travel vaccine portfolio from Emergent BioSolutions. As per the company, the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) for 2023 are expected to be DKr2,300m ($337m).
Bavarian was previously awarded a ten-year contract with BARDA in 2017 for supplying freeze-dried vaccines. These 13 million doses are expected to be filled and finished in 2023 and later.
