UK Approves Bavarian Nordic’s Chikungunya Vaccine For People Aged 12 And Up

Bavarian Nordic A/S has announced that the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has granted marketing authorization for VIMKUNYA® (recombinant, adsorbed), a vaccine developed to protect against chikungunya virus. The authorization allows the use of the vaccine in individuals aged 12 years and older for active immunization to prevent chikungunya, a mosquito-borne viral disease that can cause debilitating joint pain and other symptoms. The approval was granted through the international recognition procedure — a streamlined regulatory pathway that enables the MHRA to consider prior approvals from trusted global regulators. In this case, the MHRA based its decision on the European Commission's recent approval of VIMKUNYA.

Paul Chaplin, President and CEO of Bavarian Nordic, stated, “Chikungunya mostly represents a risk for UK citizens traveling overseas to affected regions in the Americas, Africa and Asia, but as recent research has shown, invasive mosquitoes known to carry the disease have established themselves in many parts of Southern Europe and are moving further north due to climate change. The mosquitos cannot be stopped, but with preventative measures such as vaccines, we can mitigate the impact of emerging diseases like chikungunya for those at risk, and we look forward to launching our vaccine in the UK later this year.”

With this latest approval, VIMKUNYA becomes the third vaccine from Bavarian Nordic to receive regulatory clearance for chikungunya prevention. It was previously approved by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Commission in February 2025. Bavarian Nordic is now preparing to launch the vaccine in the United Kingdom in the summer of 2025, aiming to make it accessible ahead of peak travel and mosquito seasons. In addition to the approvals in the U.S., EU, and now the UK, Bavarian Nordic has submitted an application for authorization to Health Canada. If approved, this would potentially lead to the vaccine's availability in Canada by the first half of 2026, further expanding the company’s global reach in preventing chikungunya infections.