COPENHAGEN, Denmark, July 22, 2022 – Bavarian Nordic A/S (OMX: BAVA) announced today that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive opinion recommending that the marketing authorization for the Company’s smallpox vaccine, IMVANEX®, is extended to include protecting people from monkeypox disease.
Data supporting the positive opinion was submitted upon request from EMA’s Emergency Task Force (ETF) in light of the current multi-country monkeypox outbreak.
The recommendation from the CHMP will be referred to the European Commission (EC) for final approval shortly. Once granted by the EC, the extended marketing authorization will be valid in all European Union Member States as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
Paul Chaplin, President, and CEO of Bavarian Nordic said: “We applaud the expedited review by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use and the recommendation to extend the approval of our vaccine to include protection against monkeypox, thus aligning with the approvals from the US FDA and Health Canada. While we have already supplied our vaccine to many European countries during the current monkeypox outbreak, including supplies to the joint EU stockpile facilitated by the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), the extension of the label will help to improve access to the vaccine throughout Europe and strengthen the future preparedness against monkeypox.”
About IMVANEX®
IMVANEX® (MVA-BN or Modified Vaccinia Ankara-Bavarian Nordic) is a non-replicating smallpox vaccine developed in collaboration with the U.S. government to ensure supply of a smallpox vaccine for the entire population, including immunocompromised individuals who are not recommended vaccination with traditional replicating smallpox vaccines. The vaccine was approved by the European Commission in 2013 for immunization against smallpox in adults aged 18 years and older and has subsequently gained regulatory approvals in Canada (marketed as IMVAMUNE®) and the U.S. (marketed as JYNNEOS®) where the approvals have been extended to include the monkeypox indication as the only vaccine having obtained this to-date.
Bavarian Nordic has ongoing supply contracts with USA and Canada and has delivered the vaccine to a number of undisclosed countries globally as part of their national biological preparedness. In recent years, smaller quantities of the vaccine have been supplied in response to sporadic cases of monkeypox. During the ongoing 2022 outbreak of monkeypox, Bavarian Nordic has worked with several governments to fulfil the immediate demand for the vaccine through a number of supply agreements and is working to secure manufacturing of vaccines to fulfil the demand in the medium- to long term.