Shortly after Bavarian Nordic installed a new CEO, the vaccine maker’s CFO is exiting, raising questions around C-suite stability.
Henrik Juuel has decided to step down as Bavarian’s finance chief by the end of April 2027, ending a nine-year tenure since he joined the Danish company in May 2018, the company announced Friday alongside its third-quarter earnings report.
News of his departure comes just months after Bavarian said goodbye to its 12-year CEO Paul Chaplin after a failed takeover bid by private equity.
On a conference call Friday, the first for new CEO Tarja Stenvall, Juuel assured investors that “there’s absolutely no drama involved” with his desire to leave, and that “it’s done in a good manner.”
In a press statement, Juuel framed the decision as the right time to “create more space for family and personal priorities.”
For its part, Bavarian praised Juuel as being “instrumental in strengthening the company’s financial position, supporting strong cash flow generation and a balanced approach to capital allocation.”
Juuel is credited for executing two transformative transactions that beefed up Bavarian’s vaccines portfolio. A year after his arrival from Swedish specialty pharma Orexo, Juuel helped Bavarian acquire two commercial vaccines from GSK, the rabies shot RabAvert (known as Rabipur outside the U.S.) and the tick-borne encephalitis vaccine Encepur. Then in 2023, Bavarian bought Emergent BioSolutions’ travel vaccines portfolio for $270 million upfront.
Today, RabAvert regularly leads Bavarian’s revenue. In the third quarter, sales from RabAvert jumped 37% year over year to 886 million Danish kroner ($131 million), topping analysts’ expectations by 20%, according to Jefferies.
Growth from RabAvert drove Bavarian’s overall travel health franchise, which recorded 1.1 billion kroner ($169 million) in Q3 sales.
During Friday’s call, Juuel noted an acceleration of the U.S. rabies market growth from about 20% at the beginning of the year to around 50% by a year-over-year comparison on a monthly basis.
The spread of rabies to more animal species, combined with increased time people spend outdoors, is driving exposure vaccinations, as media coverage of rabies cases also creates a demand for pre-exposure vaccinations, he explained.
The company’s chikungunya vaccine, Vimkunya, also comfortably exceeded analysts’ estimates, reaching 73 million Danish kroner in Q3, although the strong performance was attributed to the European market.
In the U.S., Vimkunya now enjoys a monopoly after Valneva withdrew its own vaccine Ixchiq. But Juuel flagged that the shot’s rollout in the U.S. is still facing challenges due to a “conservative approach” to vaccination recommendation.
The outgoing CFO labeled the problems as “short-term headwinds” that will be resolved.
In another weakness in Bavarian’s business, Juuel acknowledged that Encepur has experienced a “challenging year.” The company entered 2026 with its Encepur products having a relatively short shelf life left, which stopped some wholesalers and distributors from stocking up.
“We have since managed to increase the shelf life,” Juuel said. “We are not fully home yet, and we continue to work to increase the shelf life.”
In Bavarian’s other business sector, public preparedness, revenue landed 2% below analysts’ consensus, reaching 606 million Danish kroner in Q3. The company is targeting 2.5 billion kroner for that business in 2025 and has secured 2.4 billion kroner so far through contracts, according to Juuel. This portfolio includes the mpox vaccine Jynneos.
Friday’s call marked new CEO Stenvall’s earnings debut. Stenvall joined from Sanofi, most recently as head of global franchises for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, and where she also accumulated leadership experience in vaccines.
“Having served close to 30 years in large global pharmaceutical companies, including leading a vaccines business, my focus has been on growing and transforming businesses, building long-term partnerships with governments, health authorities, and importantly, making clear choices about where to invest and grow,” Stenvall said on the call.
She also highlighted several questions the company needs to address over the coming months. These include growing rabies and the Vimkunya launch further in the U.S., building greater long-term predictability in the public preparedness sector and ensuring it has the supply network to meet demand. Another question the CEO said Bavarian Nordic must address is “how do we build on our vaccine expertise and platforms to scale the business, both organically and through business development and acquisitions?”
Management will share its strategic priorities in the first half of 2027, including its approach to capital allocation.