Bavarian Nordic, a vaccine company, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Emergent BioSolutions’ travel vaccines portfolio for up to USD 380 million, including an upfront payment of USD 270 million. With this acquisition of Maryland’s Emergent BioSolutions travel health business, the company is expanding its US footprint and its manufacturing capacity in plan to become one of the largest pure-play vaccines companies by 2025.

The deal will add two marketed travel vaccines, a late-stage vaccine candidate, and research, development, manufacturing and commercial capabilities to Bavarian Nordic’s portfolio. The vaccines included in the deal are Vivotif for the prevention of typhoid fever, Vaxchora against cholera and a phase 3 vaccine candidate for the prevention of chikungunya virus. Bavarian Nordic will also acquire Emergent’s manufacturing site in Bern, and development facilities in San Diego, California. Approximately 280 current Emergent employees are expected to join Bavarian as part of the transaction.

The Danish vaccine company Bavarian Nordic is a fully integrated vaccines company focused on the research and development, manufacturing and commercialization of lifesaving vaccines. The company is a global leader in smallpox and mpox vaccines, which have been developed through a long-standing partnership with the US government to enhance public health preparedness. Bavarian Nordic’s commercial product portfolio also contains market-leading vaccines against rabies and tick-borne encephalitis.

Walder Wyss acted as Swiss counsel to Bavarian Nordic. The team has been co-led by Florian Gunz Niedermann (partner, corporate/m&a, pictured left) and Christian Hagen (managing associate, corporate/m&a, pictured right) and further included Michael Kissling (associate, corporate/m&a), Michael Isler (partner, regulatory, competition, IT and IP), Amina Chammah (associate, regulatory, competition, IT and IP), Simone Wetzstein (partner, employment), Lea Germann (associate, employment), Stephanie Wichmann (associate, employment), Angelina Pellegrini (associate, employment), real estate partners Francis Nordmann and André Kuhn, Sabrina Kunz and Remo Di Marco (both associates, real estate), Maurus Winzap (partner, tax), Janine Corti (counsel, tax), as well as Monique Sturny (partner, competition).