Chikungunya virus vaccine(Themis Bioscience GmbH)

Pictured: Syringe drawing from a series of vials/i Danish biotech Bavarian Nordic announced Wednesday it is discontinuing its immuno-oncology program and will focus its R&D efforts on infectious diseases. Pictured: Syringe drawing from a series of vials/iStock, NikiLitov Danish biotech Bavarian Nordic announced on Wednesday, as part of its preliminary 2023 financial results, that it would halt any future work on its cancer vaccine program. According to Bavarian Nordic, its cancer vaccine TAEK-VAC has reached a stage where more investments are required. The company would also have faced stiff competition in the cancer vaccine space as big names such as BioNTech, Merck and Moderna are making progress on their respective cancer vaccines. The TAEK-VAC program will stop with no plans to invest in an immune-oncology vaccine. The company’s website details the TAEK-VAC vaccine , which sought to use the body’s immune system to find and eliminate cancer cells. A Phase I trial of the vaccine was ongoing with the first stage of the study completed while stage two was open for enrollment. Bavarian Nordic said it will instead focus on infectious diseases through “product improvements” and new vaccine development to stay competitive. The company is working on a vaccine for the chikungunya virus and equine encephalitis, a rare mosquito-borne disease. For its chikungunya vaccine, Bavarian Nordic is currently conducting a Phase III trial. The results , which were posted in August 2023, showed that 98% of patients who took the vaccine had a strong induction of chikungunya-inducing antibodies. In addition, 97% of patients in the study had antibodies induced within two weeks of vaccination. Separately, an equine encephalitis vaccine has finished a Phase I trial and is being developed via a contract with the U.S. government. Bavarian Nordic disclosed that the development costs were DKK 850 million ($149 million) in 2023, with nearly half of those costs related to its chickungunya program. Bavarian Nordic’s preliminary 2023 results show the company secured revenue of over DKK 7 billion ($1 billion) compared to 3.1 billion ($449 million) in 2022. The biotech said that the spike in revenue was caused by a rise in sales of smallpox/mpox vaccines following an outbreak in 2022 and growth in the travel health business after an acquisition last year. Tyler Patchen is a staff writer at BioSpace . You can reach him at tyler.patchen@biospace.com . Follow him on LinkedIn .

Merck confirmed to Fierce Biotech this morning that it has discontinued the chikungunya program, calling the decision part of a “routine pipeline prioritization.” Once neck and neck with Valneva to get the first chikungunya vaccine to market, it now looks like Merck & Co. has admitted defeat as its French rival reaches the finish line. Merck’s contender was V184, a vaccine acquired through the Big Pharma’s $366 million takeover of Themis in 2020. While the candidate completed a phase 2 trial, the study was suspended “due to a clinical stock recovery action” from December 2020 to the completion date in June 2021— meaning it never hit its original enrollment goal.  Merck confirmed to Fierce Biotech this morning that it has now discontinued the chikungunya program as part of a “routine pipeline prioritization.” Perhaps the company had decided that second place wasn’t worth it. After all, while Merck’s vaccine ran into difficulties, Valneva’s raced through the clinic. Last December, the French company completed a rolling submission to the FDA for its single-shot candidate, dubbed VLA1553. Valneva’s application for approval in adults draws on phase 3 data demonstrating that VLA1553 induced a 96% protection rate after six months. The company also has an ongoing study in adolescents in Brazil, which Valneva said could support a future regulatory submission in this group. The sprint to approval was never just a two-horse race, however. Emergent BioSolutions is also fielding its own candidate, which is in two phase 3 trials. The biotech received an award from the U.S. Department of Defense last November to conduct further evaluations of the shot should it get approved. Chikungunya virus is spread to people by infected mosquitoes. Symptoms include fever, incapacitating joint pain, headache, muscle pain, joint swelling or rash. Like many tropical diseases, the reach of the virus is spreading into a wider range of countries.