Bavarian Nordic shares soar on better-than-expected earnings, surge in mpox vaccine orders
A photo shows the company logo at the headquarters of Danish biotechnology company Bavarian Nordic in Hellerup, north of Copenhagen.
Liselotte Sabroe | Afp | Getty Images
Shares of Danish biotech company Northern Europe Bavaria rose more than 12% in early trading on Thursday after the company reported higher-than-expected earnings and announced a large vaccine order from an unnamed European country amid mpox epidemic is going on.
Northern Europe Bavaria reported Q2 revenue was 1.43 billion Danish krone ($213 million) and operating profit was 420 million krone, beating analysts’ expectations cited by Reuters.
Shares were up 11.3% at 9:44 a.m. London time.
In one declare On Wednesday, the company also said it had received a contract to supply 440,000 doses of its mpox and smallpox vaccines to an undisclosed European country.
The order is planned as part of Bavarian Nordic’s initial 2024 guidance and will therefore not impact remaining capacity this year, the company said.
It comes after the World Health Organization last week declared mpox is a global public health emergency after an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) spread to neighboring countries.
Chief executive Paul Chaplin said the order showed some countries increasingly recognised the need to be more prepared following the previous outbreak in 2022.
“Since the last smallpox outbreak in 2022/23, Bavarian Nordic has established close strategic partnerships with a number of authorities who recognise the need to improve preparedness against smallpox and variola,” he said in a statement.
He added that the company still has the capacity to deliver up to 10 million doses of the vaccine by the end of next year, of which two million doses will be delivered this year.
The company said all vaccines under the 440,000 order contract will be delivered by 2024, bringing the total value of contracts signed in the Public Preparedness sector to nearly DKK 3 billion.
Bavarian Nordic said it could therefore confirm its new guidance for this year at the top of its range, with total revenue of around DKK 5.3 billion and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of around DKK 1.35 billion.
