Smallpox is an acute, highly infectious viral disease that can lead to death or complications. It has killed more people over the course of history than any other infectious disease. It cannot be treated but can be prevented by vaccination.
Why vaccinate? Even though smallpox was officially eradicated in 1980, the possibility of its re-emergence in a bioterror scenario has become a complex international health security challenge and cause for activities. The US government’s MVA safe smallpox vaccine development programme and the appropriation of USD 5.6 billion under BioShield for the purchase of bioterror countermeasures (for amongst others smallpox vaccines), demonstrate that a market for such vaccines exists.
The global community has also taken action by urging all governments to establish their own national stockpile of vaccines against smallpox, and for those countries unable to do so, an international stockpile is now being accumulated by the World Health Organization.
Bavarian Nordic's approach Bavarian Nordic is developing IMVAMUNE® as a safe stand-alone third-generation smallpox vaccine.
