Sept 24 (Reuters) - Bavarian Nordic ( BVNKF ) has

received an order worth $63 million from the U.S. government to

produce additional bulk product and the final freeze-dried doses

of its mpox and smallpox vaccine, Jynneos, it said on Tuesday.

As per the contract, the Danish biotech company will

manufacture 1 million freeze-dried vaccines to be delivered by

2026, it said.

The additional bulk product, representing the majority of

the contract value, will help replenish the inventory used to

manufacture vaccines in response to the mpox outbreak in 2022.

In August, the World Health Organization declared mpox a

global public health emergency for the second time in two years,

following an outbreak of the viral infection in the Democratic

Republic of Congo that has spread to neighboring countries and

beyond.

Mpox can spread through close contact. Usually mild, it is

fatal in rare cases. It causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled

lesions on the body.