The rise of mpox is the latest health crisis that has the world scrambling to keep it under control.
What started as a strain with most cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has now spread to other parts of Africa. It has also recorded its first European case in Sweden, prompting the World Health Organization to declare a global emergency last week.
Mpox, previously called monkeypox, has proved deadly for hundreds who contracted it, including children, although a bulk of the cases have been mild so far.
Only one company has the vaccine for it: Bavarian Nordic.
When the situation became dire last week, the Danish pharmaceutical giant donated 40,000 doses of its mpox vaccine, called Imvanex, to Africa’s public health body. Regional groups like the European Commission said they would donate 215,000 vaccine doses from their stockpile to the African health authorities.
The drug was approved in 2022 when a health emergency over mpox was declared, and, at the time, the vaccine helped curb the outbreak to a great extent.
There’s still a need for more Imvanex (also called Jynneos) to protect those most vulnerable to a potential mpox infection. Congo, where many of the cases have been recorded, still lacks vaccines entirely.
So, what do we know about Bavarian Nordic, and how has it found itself amid the latest global health emergency?
Yet another Danish pharma giant
Bavarian Nordic, founded in 1994, is a Copenhagen-based pharma company dedicated to developing vaccines, including for mpox, typhoid, and rabies.
It’s the only company that received approval from the European Union, the U.S., and other countries for its mpox vaccine.
It began working on its smallpox vaccine, similar to the one used for mpox, back in 2003 with the U.S. Government.
Bavarian Nordic has been instrumental in developing and supplying vaccines through other health crises, such as Ebola. For instance, in 2021 the company received a bulk purchase order from Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies worth $28 million.
Since the mpox outbreak two years ago, countries and regional health departments have been building up their supply of the vaccines. The EU purchased 2 million vaccine doses at the time, approved for adult use in smallpox and monkeypox cases as the two viruses are closely related.
The WHO’s declaration of an emergency has caused Bavarian Nordic’s shares to jump over 40%. The company’s shares are up 51% since the start of the year, with its market cap at $3.28 billion.
Bavarian Nordic is the latest of a slew of Danish pharma companies that have gained traction recently. Novo Nordisk has seen stratospheric growth in the past few years following the popularity of its weight-loss and diabetes medications, Wegovy and Ozempic. Meanwhile, Zealand Pharma has emerged as another challenger in the obesity drug market.
The collective clout of Denmark’s pharma industry has resulted in strong economic growth, even causing its GDP to sway with the performance of its drugmakers.
What is Bavarian Nordic’s role now?
As the mpox crisis continues to evolve, Bavarian Nordic said it’s ramping up the pace at which it produces vaccines to improve access. It has further told African health officials that it can offer 2 million doses of the drug this year and 10 million doses by the end of 2025, according to a statement released by the Danish company on Saturday.
It is able to produce millions of doses now because it has prepared an inventory “to provide a surge capacity for potential outbreaks,” it said.
That’s not all—the company has also submitted new data to request approval from the EU to extend Imvanex to adolescents ages 12 to 17, as the recent bout of cases has impacted younger people. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already granted emergency approval for the vaccine’s use in adolescents.
“The latest data that we’ve submitted is really, really important, because hopefully it will extend the use of our vaccine down to adolescents,” Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin told CNBC last week.
The African health authorities have asked for 10 million vaccine doses, which will come from a combination of international donations as well as supplies from Bavarian Nordic. Some other drugmakers could chip in by providing vaccines—for instance, U.S.-based Emergent BioSolutions has a smallpox vaccine that’s been used to treat monkeypox. However, the latter application hasn’t yet been approved by the FDA.
For its part, the Danish company is also planning to conduct clinical trials for those between 2 and 12 years to test the vaccine’s safety as mpox hits children.
Despite its pivotal role in curbing the spread of mpox, Chaplin insists that it’s not the “sole solution” to the disease.
“The international community needs to come together with Bavarian Nordic and really find a way of distributing this vaccine and containing the outbreak,” he said.
Bavarian Nordic didn’t immediately return Coins2Day’s request for comment.
