On Jul. 10, 2010, Bavarian Nordic announced that it had delivered 1 million doses of its smallpox vaccine IMVAMUNE® to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile for use in the event of a smallpox bioterrorism attack on the U.S.

IMVAMUNE® was the first vaccine successfully developed under Project BioShield, a U.S. program created by Congress in 2004 to develop and purchase medicines and vaccines to protect the American public from bioterrorism attacks. Bioterrorism experts are concerned about the possibility of an attack on the U.S. that exposes the population to the smallpox virus.

IMVAMUNE® was clinically developed and manufactured under contracts with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), as well as the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Under the BARDA contract, Bavarian Nordic delivered 20 million doses of IMVAMUNE® to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile, with an option for 60 million more doses.