Bavarian Nordic has announced that it has received a notification from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that it intends to procure 20 million doses of the company's third-generation Imvamune smallpox vaccine for the strategic national stockpile.

Under the framework of the contract Bavarian Nordic must register Imvamune for healthy people and extend the license to people who are immune-compromised, a Bavarian Nordic press release stated.

While the principal terms of the agreement have been reached, the contract is currently being finalized. It is expected to be the first HHS procurement contract under the BioShield programme since enactment of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act in December 2006.

The HHS notification continues the long-standing collaboration between Bavarian Nordic and the US government on the development and production of MVA as a safe smallpox vaccine. The first contract (RFP-1) was awarded to Bavarian Nordic in 2003; four years after the company initiated its MVA-based smallpox vaccine program. As part of the second contract (RFP-2) awarded in 2004, Bavarian Nordic supplied half a million doses of Imvamune smallpox vaccine to the US Government. Throughout the collaboration, Bavarian Nordic has continually invested its own funds in the expedited program as well as established a commercial manufacturing facility with a minimum capacity of producing 40 million doses of Imvamune per year.

"We are pleased that HHS has notified us of their intent for Bavarian Nordic to be the manufacturer of third-generation smallpox vaccines. We consider this decision to be conclusive recognition of our substantial achievements in developing the MVA platform technology which has many applications for future vaccines," said Peter Wulff, president & CEO of Bavarian Nordic.