As a rise in new mpox cases garners international attention, Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic is stacking up orders for its Jynneos vaccine and simultaneously seeing its share price jump.
This week, along with reporting first-half results, the company disclosed that it received a new order of its smallpox/mpox vaccine from an “undisclosed European country,” CEO Paul Chaplin said in a release. That order follows a $156.8 million contract with the U.S.’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority that came earlier this month.
In addition, the company this month received a recent order from the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority for more than 175,000 doses that will be donated to Africa.
On the back of the recent supply deals, the company confirmed its revenue expectations for the full year. Bavarian Nordic expects to generate about 5.3 billion Danish kroner ($775 million), which falls at the very high end of its prior range.
Previously, the company expected to generate between 5 billion kroner ($731 million) and 5.3 billion kroner ($775 million) this year.
Bavarian Nordic's shares climbed 5% on Thursday after the order disclosure. Over the past month, the company's share price has increased by nearly 50%.
Jynneos became commercially available in the U.S. in April, but it has been supplied to government stockpiles for mpox and smallpox for many years. As the only approved mpox vaccine, the shot was a key line of defense when the virus hit the U.S. in 2022.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the rapid spread of mpox in Africa a global health emergency earlier this month. Bavarian Nordic is “working closely” to ensure equitable access to its vaccine and has built a “strong partnership” with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to expand its manufacturing network to the continent, Chaplin noted. The company is also working with the WHO on a regulatory path that would bolster access to the vaccine in “all countries.”
“Bavarian Nordic is prepared to work with the international community to play our role in protecting and saving lives around the World and to contain the latest outbreak,” the CEO added.
In addition, the company is working to ramp up its manufacturing capacity in response to the latest outbreak to provide 10 million new doses by the end of 2025.
Outside of manufacturing and supply, the next goalpost is to expand Jynneos’ use to adolescents. The company recently scored funding to run a clinical trial of the vaccine across children in Africa.