IMVAMUNE®
Bavarian Nordic is an international leader in the field of
smallpox vaccines with almost 10 years of experience. IMVAMUNE®
is the company's third generation smallpox vaccine based on
MVA-BN® technology. The development of IMVAMUNE® was
initiated in 1999. IMVAMUNE® is derived from the parent strain
Modified Vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA), which is a highly attenuated
pox virus that has lost the capacity to replicate in human cells,
hence solving the main safety issue of conventional vaccines.
The comprehensive clinical program has shown very promising
results:
- IMVAMUNE® has been shown to be well tolerated and
immunogenic (Vollmar et al, 2005 and Frey et al, 2007, Stittelaar
et al, 2005)
- IMVAMUNE® is easily administered through standard
procedures such as subcutaneous or intramuscular injection (Damon
et al, 2009)
- IMVAMUNE induce variola (Smallpox virus) neutralizing
antibodies similar to a standard Dryvax (1st generation vaccine)
vaccination (Damon et al, 2009)
- IMVAMUNE® protected monkeys against a lethal respiratory
challenge with monkeypox virus (Stittelaar et al, 2005)
- IMVAMUNE® rescued mice if administered 2 full days after an
otherwise lethal infection of the causative agent of mousepox
(ECTV) (Samuelsson et al, 2009)
IMVAMUNE® is currently an unlicensed vaccine and has gained
fast track status at the FDA.
Because of the high need for a safer smallpox vaccine,
IMVAMUNE® is already in production and available for
governments globally under their national emergency rules.
Once approved, IMVAMUNE® will be positioned as a new and
superior third generation smallpox vaccine for protection of:
- Military and first-line responders (health care workers,
military, police, etc.)
- Individuals contraindicated for conventional smallpox vaccines:
e.g. individuals with HIV, people with atopic dermatitis and
members of their households. This typically represents 25% of the
general population (Kemper et al, 2002)
- The population in general
