The Danish company on Saturday announced plans to increase production of its vaccine Jynneos on the heels of the World Health Organization last week declaring mpox a global health emergency.
Bavarian Nordic on Saturday announced plans to ramp up the production of its mpox vaccine Jynneos in response to the ongoing outbreak in Africa and the potential further spread to other continents.
The Danish company said it can currently deliver up to two million additional vaccine doses by the end of 2024, while also having the capacity to expand to 10 million doses by the end of 2025. Bavarian Nordic is working with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to ensure “continued equitable access” to Jynneos.
“We have built a strong partnership with the Africa CDC, both on supply, but also expanding our manufacturing network to include Africa,” Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin said in a statement, noting that the company is also coordinating with the World Health Organization (WHO) to establish “a regulatory path to ensure access to all countries.”
Currently, the majority of mpox cases in Africa are in children and adolescents younger than 18 years, according to Bavarian Nordic. The company has also generated clinical data to support the use of Jynneos in younger patients aged 12 to 17 years, with a regulatory package recently filed with the European Medicines Agency. Bavarian Nordic is also preparing to launch a study to assess the vaccine in individuals two to 12 years of age.
In April 2024, data from a Phase II study funded by the National Institutes of Health also found that even a fifth of Jynneos’ usual dose could elicit a similar immune response as its standard regimen, potentially allowing even more patients to receive the shot in emergency situations.
Mpox is a zoonotic virus that results in fevers, body pain and headaches. In its more severe and progressed forms, mpox can lead to skin eruptions and rashes. The disease is transmitted through close physical contact. Mpox has two known clades—the milder clade II that caused the 2022 outbreak in the U.S., and a more deadly and severe clade Ib, which is now ravaging several countries in Africa.
Last week, the WHO declared the current mpox outbreak to be a public health emergency, warning governments that the outbreak could spread beyond Africa. In response, several agencies, including Europe’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, have started purchasing doses from Bavarian Nordic to help the Africa CDC manage the situation.
According to Jefferies analyst Peter Welford, the mpox outbreak may prove to be a “windfall” for Bavarian Nordic. At its current production capacity, the company could potentially bring in “up to $600 million to $1 billion” in 2025, “albeit perhaps lower on price, discounts and donations.”
