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Vaccine Regimen from Janssen and Bavarian Nordic to Support Republic of Rwanda's Preparedness Against Ebola OutbreakCOPENHAGEN, Denmark, December 9, 2019 – Bavarian Nordic A/S (OMX: BAVA, OTC: BVNRY) today announced, that its partner Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson will provide up to 200,000 regimens of its investigational Ebola vaccine to the Republic of Rwanda to support a new immunization program led by the Rwanda government. The vaccine regimen, which consists of the MVA-BN® Filo vaccine from Bavarian Nordic and the Ad26.ZEBOV vaccine from Janssen, will help protect the citizens of Rwanda from the current Ebola outbreak in the neighboring country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Ebola outbreak in the DRC a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). More than 3,300 cases, including more than 2,200 deaths, have been reported to date, making the outbreak second only to the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic. In October, Johnson & Johnson announced a donation of up to 500,000 regimens of the investigational vaccine to be part of an expanded response in DRC. In July 2019, the fear of further spread of Ebola to Rwanda heightened due to two cases of the disease being reported in the DRC city of Goma, a major trading hub located near the Rwandan border. Because a significant number of Rwandan citizens cross the border to the DRC on a regular basis as part of their everyday life, the Rwanda Ministry of Health has established a large-scale vaccination campaign involving approximately 200,000 Rwandan citizens from age two and older in the regions bordering the DRC judged to be at risk. The program is initiated with the objective of creating a protective barrier to prevent Ebola from impacting the Rwandan citizens and from spreading further. “We applaud the decision by the Rwandan authorities to introduce the Janssen/Bavarian Nordic vaccine to help prevent the Ebola virus from spreading in to the country, and we are proud to be a contributing partner in the development of a vaccine which is now actively being used in large-scale efforts to contain the virus in both the DRC, Uganda and Rwanda,” said Paul Chaplin, President and CEO of Bavarian Nordic. Background Under the agreement with Janssen in 2014, Bavarian Nordic licensed MVA-BN Filo to Janssen and manufactured a significant amount of vaccines for the stockpile, which is now being deployed in the DRC and Rwanda. The vaccine regimen was developed in a collaborative research program with the NIH and received direct funding and preclinical services from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of NIH, under Contract Numbers HHSN272200800056C, and HHSN272201000006I and HHSN272201200003I, respectively. Further funding for the Ebola vaccine regimen has been provided in part with Federal funds from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, BARDA under Contract Numbers HHSO100201700013C and HHSO100201500008C. About Bavarian Nordic Contacts Graham Morrell Press Release Attachment |