The five year, $17.9m contract will support the advanced development of candidate vaccine components and technologies that accelerate the immune response for use in post-event settings following the intentional release of pathogens that are considered a threat to public health.
Bavarian Nordic will also assess several novel technologies to enhance the immune response to a combined smallpox and Marburg virus vaccine based on MVA-BN.
The company will assess candidate vaccines in preclinical studies under the 2 year base period of the contract, valued at $4.4m and it may be followed by GMP production and a Phase I clinical trial for the lead candidate that will be performed under several contract options that may be exercised until the end of the contract in 2017.
Bavarian Nordic president and CEO Anders Hedegaard said this is the first major award the company has received for a recombinant MVA-BN based vaccine and is a recognition of the huge potential of MVA-BN(r) as a vaccine vector for infectious diseases and cancer.
”This contract broadens our collaboration with the US Government and we are excited to explore the opportunity to expand the scope of application for our MVA-BN(r) technology platform, which we have successfully developed through our contracts with the U.S. Government to develop our IMVAMUNE(r) smallpox vaccine,” Anders added.