Bavarian Nordic was so successful in selling its acquired travel vaccines Rabipur against rabies and Encepur against Western European tick-borne encephalomyelitis that it has made a final milestone payment to its former owner GSK.
In total, Bavarian Nordic GSK has to pay a bill of DKK 186 million (USD 27.8 million), which must be settled in the third quarter, according to last week’s half-year results.
But this is not the only payment that will soon flow from Denmark to Great Britain, says Henrik Juuel, CFO of Bavarian Nordic.
“We still have some milestone payments outstanding related to the relocation of vaccine production, which are scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of next year,” Juuel told MedWatch.
In total, the final milestone payments amount to around DKK 2 billion (USD 299 million), says Henrik Juuel, emphasizing that Bavarian Nordic already has the necessary money.
However, this means that Bavarian Nordic is putting any new acquisitions on hold for the time being, he says.
I am still researching
Purchasing vaccines from outside the company remains part of Bavarian Nordic’s strategy, which, according to Juuel, essentially follows a two-pronged approach.
Despite previous failures, Bavarian Nordic’s research department is working on various preclinical opportunities – an area that does not cost the Danish vaccine maker much money. And then there are the longer-term acquisitions.
“Our strategy for the future will be to see if there is something interesting that we can take from our research department and move into clinical development, or whether we can possibly bring something in from outside. The latter is not relevant in the short term, as it is about making these milestone payments to GSK and Emergent,” explains Henrik Juuel.
In total, Bavarian Nordic owes GSK almost 1.5 billion DKK (224 million USD), while Emergent Biosolutions is set to receive 537 million DKK (80.3 million USD) from the Danish vaccine manufacturer.
Bavarian Nordic’s last acquisition took place in 2022. At that time, the company acquired Emergent Biosolutions’ entire travel vaccine portfolio, consisting of two already marketed vaccines against cholera and typhoid, respectively.
In addition, Bavarian Nordic acquired the Phase III candidate Chikv VLP against the Chikungunya virus, which it submitted to the regulatory authorities in July 2024. Bavarian Nordic will receive a final decision on the vaccine candidate on February 14, 2025.
English translation: Catherine Brett
