Bavarian Nordic

Bavarian Nordic A/S is a fully integrated biotechnology company focused on the development, manufacturing and commercialization of cancer immunotherapies and vaccines for infectious diseases. The company is headquartered in Kvistgaard, Denmark (a town in Helsingør Municipality), where it also operates a commercial-scale manufacturing facility. The company has a research and development facility in Martinsried, Germany and an office in Morrisville, North Carolina.
The company uses viral vectors in its research and development.
Technologies.
MVA-BN.
MVA-BN is a proprietary technology developed by Bavarian Nordic. It is derived from the Modified vaccinia Ankara virus. MVA-BN is characterized by the inability to replicate in human cells, contrary to other vaccinia-based vaccines, which may replicate in humans, thus potentially causing severe and life-threatening side effects. Developed as the non-replicating smallpox vaccine, Imvamune, it is approved in Canada and in the European Union, where it is marketed as Imvanex. The vaccine is being supplied for emergency use to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile as well as other government stockpiles.
The Jynneos smallpox and monkeypox live, non-replicating vaccine was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2019. Jynneos was formerly known as MVA-BN.
Vaccinia-fowlpox-TRICOM.
A second poxvirus-based technology is employed in most of the company’s cancer immunotherapies, and was in-licensed as part of a collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Vaccinia-fowlpox-TRICOM is a sequential prime-boost therapy based on vaccinia and fowlpox in combination with three co-stimulatory molecules (TRICOM). The poxvirus-based immunotherapy can be modified to encode different tumor-associated antigens such as Prostate-specific antigen (PSA), Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and/or Mucin 1 (MUC1), which are all tumor markers that are overexpressed in various cancers. This technology formed the basis of the company’s lead oncology product candidates, Prostvac and CV-301.
Ebola vaccine development and production.
The company has worked for several years with the NIAID on the development of a filovirus vaccine for Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fever diseases. In October 2014, following a successful pre-clinical demonstration of the combination vaccine regimen of its multivalent MVA-BN Filovirus vaccine and Crucell/Janssen's AdVac technology based on adenoviral vectors, Bavarian Nordic joined efforts with Crucell Holland B.V., one of the Janssen Pharmaceuticals Companies of Johnson & Johnson to develop and manufacture this vaccine regimen intended for emergency use to help contain the outbreak in West Africa. In January 2015, the company had produced the first 400,000 doses of the vaccine and the first clinical trial of the vaccine regimen was initiated in the UK, with additional trials planned in the US and Africa. It was approved for medical use in the European Union in July 2020.
Acquisition of rabies- and TBE-vaccines from GSK.
Following announcement of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on 21 October 2019, Bavarian Nordic acquired 2 vaccines from the traveler portfolio of GSK Vaccines: Rabipur(/Rabavert) and Encepur.
Marketed products and pipeline.
Bavarian Nordic's marketed products and pipeline, as of July 2020.
Bavarian Nordic is a member of the Alliance for Biosecurity, a group of companies that work towards preventing and treating severe infectious diseases, especially those that present global security challenges.