HHS on Fri­day bought 2.5 mil­lion more dos­es of Bavar­i­an Nordic’s Jyn­neos, an FDA-li­censed vac­cine that’s help­ing to stave off this cur­rent and po­ten­tial­ly fu­ture mon­key­pox out­breaks.

The or­der brings the to­tal vac­cine dos­es to be de­liv­ered in 2022 and 2023 to 4.4 mil­lion, but Bavar­i­an said in a state­ment that de­liv­er­ies un­der this con­tract won’t start un­til Q4 of 2022, and will con­tin­ue through ear­ly 2023. Bavar­i­an al­so said that “the ma­jor­i­ty of the dos­es un­der this con­tract are planned for de­liv­ery in 2023” so it won’t have any ef­fect on the com­pa­ny’s fi­nan­cial guid­ance this year.

HHS has promised to de­liv­er 296,000 dos­es of the Jyn­neos vac­cine — ap­proved to treat both small­pox and mon­key­pox — in the com­ing weeks, in­clud­ing 56,000 dos­es which will be avail­able im­me­di­ate­ly. The US has tal­lied more than 300 known cas­es of mon­key­pox so far, al­though that num­ber is like­ly an un­der­es­ti­mate.

The Dan­ish com­pa­ny al­so said it will pro­duce these dos­es in freeze-dried form us­ing vac­cines al­ready man­u­fac­tured in bulk un­der an ex­ist­ing 10-year con­tract with BAR­DA that be­gan in 2017. Bavar­i­an Nordic has pro­duced a bulk Jyn­neos vac­cine that can make about 13 mil­lion dos­es for fu­ture de­liv­ery.

“While the bulk vac­cine has al­ready been in­voiced, the fi­nal drug pro­duc­tion of the vac­cines (for­mu­la­tion, fill­ing and freeze-dry­ing) will oc­cur from 2023 and on­wards,” the com­pa­ny added.

Bavar­i­an Nordic’s stock price has risen more than 20% in the last month.

Microcap biotech Seelos Therapeutics is halting enrollment of its study in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (also known as Machado-Joseph disease) because of “financial considerations,” and in order to focus on other studies, the company said today, adding that the pause would be temporary.

The study will continue with the patients who have already enrolled, and the data from them will be used to decide whether to continue enrolling others in the future.

Paul McKenzie took over as CEO of Australian pharma giant CSL this month, following in the footsteps of long-time CSL vet Paul Perreault.

With an eye on mRNA, and quickly commercializing its new, $3.5 million-per-shot gene therapy for hemophilia B, McKenzie and chief medical officer Bill Mezzanotte answered some questions from Endpoints News this afternoon about where McKenzie is going to take the company and what advances may be coming to market from CSL’s pipeline. Below is a lightly edited transcript.

Boehringer Ingelheim reported human pharma sales of €18.5 billion on Wednesday, led by type 2 diabetes and heart failure drug Jardiance and pulmonary fibrosis med Ofev. Jardiance sales reached €5.8 billion, growing 39% year over year, while Ofev took in €3.2 billion, notching its own 20.6% annual jump.

However, Boehringer is also looking ahead with its pipeline, estimating “In the next seven years the company expects about 20 regulatory approvals in human pharma.”

The FDA today approved Emergent BioSolutions’ Narcan brand naloxone nasal spray for over-the-counter sales. The nod was expected and comes on the heels of a unanimous 19-0 advisory committee vote in favor of approval last month.

The move to OTC means the opioid overdose reversal agent will now be available on grocery, convenience and gas stations shelves, as well as potentially for purchase online.