Transgene Targets Mpox, Pivoting Cancer Tech for Pandemic Preparedness

STRASBOURG, France – June 25, 2026 – French biotech firm Transgene has made a significant strategic move, stepping from its core focus on cancer immunotherapy into the global fight against infectious diseases. The company today presented compelling preclinical data for a novel mpox vaccine candidate, TG-MVA™, at the World Congress on Infectious Diseases (WCID) 2026. The vaccine, developed using a modern, scalable manufacturing process, demonstrated robust protection in animal models, positioning Transgene as a potential new force in bolstering global pandemic readiness.

The announcement signals a calculated diversification for the company, leveraging years of investment in its viral vector platforms, originally designed to fight cancer, to address a critical public health vulnerability. The data showed that TG-MVA™ provides efficacy and safety comparable to the current reference vaccine, a crucial benchmark as it aims to enter a market dominated by a handful of suppliers.

“Growing concerns over biosecurity and pandemic preparedness in Europe, the United States and across the world, combined with a substantial vaccine supply gap, have created an attractive opportunity to leverage the investment we have already made in the MVA cell-line platform used for myvac®,” said Alessandro Riva, MD, Chairman and CEO of Transgene. “The promising preclinical results presented today at the World Congress on Infectious Diseases support the rapid advancement of TG‑MVATM toward clinical development.”

Addressing a Critical Gap in Global Health Security

The need for additional, reliable sources of mpox and smallpox vaccines became painfully clear during the 2022 global mpox outbreak. The sudden surge in demand exposed the fragility of a supply chain heavily reliant on a single primary manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic, and its JYNNEOS vaccine (also known as Imvanex/Imvamune). While the company worked to ramp up production, health authorities worldwide scrambled to secure doses, highlighting the risks of limited manufacturing capacity.

This supply vulnerability persists. Although Bavarian Nordic has stated it has the capacity to produce millions of doses, challenges related to cost—estimated at over $100 per dose—and logistical hurdles have hampered equitable distribution, particularly in African nations where the more severe Clade I variant of mpox is endemic and causing ongoing outbreaks. The reliance on donations from wealthier nations is not a sustainable long-term strategy for global health security.

Transgene’s TG-MVA™ enters this landscape with a specific solution in mind: scalability. The current reference vaccine, JYNNEOS, is produced using Chicken Embryo Fibroblast (CEF) cultures, a reliable but industrially cumbersome method. Transgene’s innovation is the use of a proprietary cell-line-based manufacturing process, a system that allows for faster, more reproducible production at a significantly larger scale. This modern approach could be a game-changer for building national stockpiles and responding rapidly to future outbreaks of mpox or other related orthopoxviruses like smallpox.

A Strategic Pivot: From Cancer to Contagion

For investors and industry observers, Transgene’s move is a masterful example of technology transfer and strategic diversification. The company has spent years honing its expertise in Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) viral vectors through its myvac® platform, which develops personalized therapeutic vaccines for cancer. This platform engineers MVA viruses to teach a patient's immune system to recognize and attack their specific tumor cells.

That deep knowledge of MVA vectors, known for their excellent safety profile, is directly applicable to creating vaccines for infectious diseases. The key, however, is the manufacturing technology. The cell-line system that underpins TG-MVA™ was initially developed to make the myvac® platform viable for broader use. By applying this scalable process to an established public health need, Transgene is not only entering a new market but also validating the versatility and value of its core technological assets.

This pivot allows the company to capitalize on its existing R&D investments to pursue a distinct commercial opportunity without abandoning its primary mission. The company has reiterated its commitment to its oncology pipeline, including its lead asset TG4050, and recently initiated a new trial for TG4070 in lung cancer. This dual-track strategy could de-risk the company's profile, balancing the long-term, high-reward potential of personalized cancer therapies with the more immediate public health and government contract-driven market of biodefense.

Unpacking the Preclinical Promise and Path Forward

The data presented at WCID 2026 provides a solid foundation for Transgene's ambitions. In studies involving both mice and non-human primates, TG-MVA™ demonstrated performance on par with the approved reference vaccine. Key findings included:

• Robust Protection: The vaccine achieved high survival rates (100% in mice, 87% in primates) after exposure to the monkeypox virus and significantly reduced disease severity, including lesion formation and viral load.
• Strong Immunogenicity: It induced levels of neutralizing antibodies and broad T-cell immune responses comparable to the reference vaccine, suggesting a durable and effective defense mechanism.
• Reassuring Safety: The safety profile was similar across all vaccinated animals, showing only mild and temporary side effects typical of vaccination.

While these preclinical results are highly encouraging, the path to market is long and rigorous. Transgene must now advance TG-MVA™ into human clinical trials, a multi-phase process that typically takes several years. Phase I trials will establish safety and dosage in a small group of healthy volunteers, followed by larger Phase II and III trials to confirm safety and efficacy in hundreds or thousands of participants. However, given the established safety of MVA vectors and the pressing need for pandemic preparedness, regulatory agencies like the FDA and EMA may offer accelerated review pathways to speed up development.

The Investor's Take: Market Dynamics and Competitive Landscape

From an investment perspective, Transgene is entering a dynamic and increasingly competitive field. While Bavarian Nordic is the incumbent, other players are also developing next-generation mpox vaccines. Both Moderna and BioNTech are leveraging their mRNA platforms to develop candidates, with Phase I/II trials already underway. Transgene’s MVA-based approach offers a different, well-validated modality that may have distinct advantages in terms of durability or specific immune responses.

Success for TG-MVA™ will depend on its ability to deliver on its promise of scalability and potential cost-effectiveness. If Transgene can produce a safe and effective vaccine more efficiently than current methods, it could become a preferred supplier for governments building strategic national stockpiles and for international bodies aiming to create a global vaccine reserve.

This strategic expansion diversifies Transgene’s portfolio and demonstrates a shrewd ability to leverage its platform technology to address new market opportunities. While maintaining its financial visibility until early 2028 and its primary focus on a promising cancer pipeline, the company has now opened a compelling new chapter in its story—one that could see its innovations protect not just individual patients, but entire populations.