AdaptVac and Bavarian Nordic signed a heads of agreement in May and have now concluded a license agreement which provides Bavarian Nordic the global commercialization rights to the proprietary capsid virus like particle (cVLP) based SARS-CoV-2 subunit vaccine. Under the terms of the agreement, Bavarian Nordic will make an upfront payment of EUR 4 million to AdaptVac, in addition to potential future development and sales milestones and tiered (single to double-digit percentage) royalties. The total deal value, excluding royalties is up to EUR 136 million, corresponding to SEK 1.4 billion. ExpreS²ion will retain up to 2 MEUR, corresponding to 21 MSEK, of the commercial milestone payments, which are estimated to be recognised as ExpreS²ion revenues during 2021 and 2022 in accordance with the current development plans, as well a double-digit percentage of AdaptVac’s royalty revenue stream.

Last month, encouraging preclinical data for the vaccine candidate were reported, demonstrating excellent COVID-19 immunization with very high level of SARS-CoV-2 virus neutralization in a mice model, compared to published preclinical data on other COVID-19 vaccines in development. Based on these data, the first in human study of the vaccine is planned to initiate in the fourth quarter of 2020 with data expected to become available in the first quarter of 2021. The Phase 1/2a study is supported by a Horizon 2020 EU grant awarded to the PREVENT-nCoV consortium, which, in addition to AdaptVac and ExpreS²ion, represents various European universities.

Bavarian Nordic will assume responsibility for the further clinical development, however only if external funding can be obtained. Bavarian Nordic is in the process of seeking funding from various initiatives established to rapidly advance COVID-19 vaccine development.

ExpreS²ion’s CEO Bent Frandsen comments:

“Since embarking on the COVID-19 vaccine utilizing advantageous technologies based on AdaptVac’s capsid VLP and ExpreS²ion’s ExpreS² platforms, we, together with AdaptVac, have worked intensely on developing a unique SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. With Bavarian Nordic’s expertise in late-clinical stage development and market commercialisation, this unique investigational vaccine is set for public access soon”.

About Bavarian Nordic

Bavarian Nordic is a fully integrated biotechnology company focused on the development, manufacture and commercialization of life-saving vaccines. Bavarian Nordic is a global leader in smallpox vaccines and have been a long-term supplier to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile of a non-replicating smallpox vaccine, which has been approved by the FDA, also for the protection against monkeypox. Their commercial product portfolio furthermore contains market-leading vaccines against rabies and tick-borne encephalitis. Using their live virus vaccine platform technology, MVA-BN®, they have created a diverse portfolio of proprietary and partnered product candidates designed to save and improve lives by unlocking the power of the immune system, including an investigational Ebola vaccine, licensed to Janssen.

About the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak

A novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China in late December 2019 and declared a pandemic by WHO on March 11^th, 2020. The COVID-19 Coronavirus is a part of the same family as SARS and MERS, and there have been 14.6 million confirmed cases and more than 607 000 deaths reported as of July 21^st, 2020. The latest situation updates are available on the WHO web page: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019.

About AdaptVac

AdaptVac is a joint venture between ExpreS²ion Biotechnologies and NextGen Vaccines, owned by the inventors of the novel proprietary and ground-breaking capsid virus-like particle (cVLP) platform technology spun out from the University of Copenhagen. The Company aims to accelerate the development of highly efficient therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines within high value segments of oncology, infectious diseases and immunological disorders. Granting of the core patent in the U.S. has expanded AdaptVac’s patent protection to include our entire pipeline of vaccines and immunotherapies in development.

About the PREVENT-nCoV consortium

ExpreS²ion Biotechnologies and AdaptVac are members of the PREVENT-nCoV consortium that earlier this year received an EU Horizon 2020 grant to rapidly advance a unique cVLP vaccine candidate against COVID-19 into the clinic. In addition to to ExpreS²ion and AdaptVac, the consortium members are Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Institute for Tropical Medicine (ITM) at University of Tübingen, The Department of Immunology and Microbiology (ISIM) at University of Copenhagen, and the Laboratory of Virology at Wageningen University.

Certified Adviser

Svensk Kapitalmarknadsgranskning AB

Telefon: +46 11 32 30 732

E-post: ca@skmg.se