Therapeutics Daily
July 13, 2010

Smallpox Vaccine Represents the Company's First Major U.S. Product Sale

KVISTGARD, Denmark, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Bavarian Nordic A/S (Nasdaq OMX: BAVA) announced today that it has delivered 1 million doses of its smallpox vaccine IMVAMUNE® to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile for use in the event of a smallpox bioterrorism attack on the U.S.

IMVAMUNE® is the first vaccine successfully developed under Project BioShield, a U.S. program created by Congress in 2004 to develop and purchase medicines and vaccines to protect the American public from bioterrorism attacks. Bioterrorism experts are concerned about the possibility of an attack on the U.S. that exposes the population to the smallpox virus.

IMVAMUNE® was clinically developed and manufactured under contracts with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), as well as the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Under the BARDA contract, Bavarian Nordic will deliver 20 million doses of IMVAMUNE® to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile, with an option for 60 million more doses.

"We are gratified that the U.S. Government has added our vaccine to the Strategic National Stockpile. This represents a significant milestone for our company, our first major sale to the U.S.," said Bavarian Nordic President and CEO Anders Hedegaard. "Our partnership with NIH, BARDA and HHS over the recent years is a case study in successful public-private partnerships to combat bioterrorism. We look forward to continuing that partnership through other contracts with the U.S. government."

[FULL ARTICLE...]