MedWatch Reports That Bavarian Nordic Will Create New CEO Position, Of Separate Biz Unit, To Sell Only "Emergency" Vaccines, Like Mpox/Smallpox...

I generally do not pay for subscriptions to EU based med-outlets, so I cannot read the full story (this is a sub- of a Danish media conglomerate). But the needs for large R&D budgets, capital for new plants, and the pressures around pricings -- are very different, when a company signs up to provide emergency vaccines, on a "contacts, and contacts of contacts" contract -- as opposed to a general, population-wide prophylactic vaccine (like one for influenza, or shingles). These latter vaccines are already well-capitalized and in many cases have stable annual recurring revenue streams in longer-term governmental contracts.

In an emergency setting however [think of Africa -- and Ebola, Marburg, Lassa or Mpox, here], the per dose payouts tend to be lower, but an off-setting premium may be paid -- for essentially immediate delivery, of say 100,000 to 700,000 jabs. All within weeks. [The EU Health Commission offices or the WHO or Doctors Without Borders may also just flat-out contribute funds -- to get the vax to the spots needed.]

And so, without having read a bit of the story [to date, B/N has no posting on its own website, about the split -- I looked], I will hazard a guess that this is a pre-cursor to transitioning the "emergency vax" arm / biz unit. . . to a not-primarily-for-profit structure.

The newly named head of the emergency vax unit was previously much more an HR / "teams coach", as opposed to a bottom line driven financial type. And while the new biz unit may show a net profit from time to time, that may not be its goal. I will further bet that it will have only a very tiny R&D budget, because this sort of government contracting is awarded only to already approved, on market vaccines. And even then, the vax itself may be sourced from lower cost Indian pharma concerns, by sub-contract. [We have seen that, in the last two years for Mpox deliveries into Africa.]

So to be clear, this entire entry is essentially conjecture -- by me. Smile. But I think it reasonable. If your business really depends on any of the above analysis, I urge you to get a copy of the MedWatch story, and read it closely. Until it is on the Wayback Machine, I'm not likely to read it over. Here's the summary that can be seen for free:

. . .Bavarian Nordic splits up commercial division -- appoints global head of emergency vaccines.

It was just over a month ago that the Danish vaccine company announced it had signed a contract with an unnamed government for the supply of its smallpox and mpox vaccine -- known as MVA-BN -- worth more than DKK 700 million. . . .

Hitesh Sahni will serve as global head of the new independent business unit. . . .

In this way (should the company go all the way through with it), the nearly-non-existent margins on "emergency" vaccine sales will not drag down the overall R&D driven "futures" vaccines revenue / profits, on a reported basis -- under EU accounting rules. Smile.

And the US men have exited the world cup -- proving again that Tangerine 2.0 poisons every real athletic / sporting event he puts his tumb on. [The only game the now world champ NY Knicks lost, in their whole playoff run. . . was the one he attended, at MSG. He made fans wait for hours in the heat until he was ensconced inside the venue.]

And as to soccer, he seems to like cheating more than he hates birthright citizenship. The one he put his thumb on the scale "for". . . was, over 20 years ago, what he would call a "birth tourist" delivery -- out of London. Damn. Onward, just the same.

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