Continued smallpox vaccine orders provide ‘robust’ base for Bavarian Nordic into 2023
The Danish vaccine company says a ‘number of contracts of varying sizes’ have been signed, most with deliveries starting immediately, although it has not disclosed most of the countries it is supplying.
The company has raised its financial guidance for 2022 on the back of new smallpox vaccine orders several times: and with orders now pushing into 2023 this will thus impact revenue expectations for next year as well (the company announced this morning an undisclosed European country has ordered an additional 1.5 million doses of Imvanex, with deliveries starting in the fourth quarter of the year but the vast majority of the doses following in 2023).
On Friday, the company also announced it would supply an additional 2.5 million doses of the vaccine to the US (where it is called Jynneos), bringing total deliveries for the country in 2022 and 2023 up to nearly 7 million doses (The new order follows two previous orders from BARDA in June and July 2022 for 500,000 and 2.5 million doses respectively, together with an order from BARDA in 2020 for 1.4 million doses).
In the US and Canada, the vaccine is approved for use against monkeypox as well as smallpox (in all other markets it is only used against monkeypox off-label).
The new US order will be filled at a US based contract manufacturer using bulk vaccine already manufactured and invoiced under previous contracts with BARDA and currently stored at Bavarian Nordic. A tech transfer of the process to the contract manufacturer will begin immediately, the aim to manufacture all doses under this contract in 2022.
Other smallpox vaccine orders for 2022 include the EU (110,000 doses) and Canada (a five-year contract worth around $56m).
While the terms of these agreements remain undisclosed, the sum of these orders together with orders close to signature will significantly impact Bavarian Nordic's financial guidance for 2022. As a consequence, the company is upgrading 2022 revenue which is now expected to be between DKK 2,700 and 2,900 million ($371m to $399m). Prior to the monkeypox outbreak, its financial expectations for the year were DKK 1,300 and 1,500m ($182m - $210m).
