Smallpox vaccine helps Bavarian Nordic net first full-year profit in 5 years

After a four-year drought, Bavarian Nordic has finally had its first full year of profit, and it has its smallpox vaccine to thank.

The company announced Wednesday that it had a full-year net profit of 25.9 Danish kroner ($3.72 million) and that it expects 1.1 billion kroner ($159 million) in revenue for 2015. The Danish biotech said in its annual report that it made most of its fiscal 2014 revenue from sales of Imvamune, its smallpox vaccine, to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile.

Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin

"2014 was a strong year for Bavarian Nordic where we met our financial and operational targets and even exceeded our own expectations, as new opportunities surfaced during the year," company CEO Paul Chaplin said in a statement.

Just this month, Bavarian Nordic inked a deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) on its prostate cancer vaccine, Prostvac. The candidate is currently in Phase III and Bristol-Myers will hand over $60 million up front, with more than $915 million to follow in milestones if it licenses and commercializes the vaccine.

The pact came on the heels of positive survival data from a Phase I trial of Prostvac in combination with BMS's cancer drug Yervoy.

Bavarian Nordic is also in the Ebola race, collaborating with Johnson & Johnson's ($JNJ) Janssen subsidiary on the third Ebola vaccine to come to human trials. This vaccine is unique among those in development as it is a two-dose, "prime-boost" regimen. The first dose primes the immune system, and the second, booster dose enhances the immune response.

"In 2015 we will produce and deliver approximately 2 million doses of our Ebola vaccine that with our partner Janssen, is planned to enter efficacy trials later this year," Chaplin said in Bavarian Nordic's annual report.

- here's the release
- check out the annual report