Valneva SE, a specialty vaccine company, has signed a new contract, lasting up to three years, with the U.S. government Department of Defense (DoD) for the supply of its Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccine IXIARO.

The new contract, one base year, plus two option years, has a base-year value of $61 million. The DoD has the option to purchase a total of $76 million – $105 million worth of IXIARO across the two option years.  Deliveries for the base-year will begin 4Q20.

Franck Grimaud, Chief Business Officer of Valneva commented, “We are very pleased with this new contract including the longer duration of up to three years – a clear demonstration of the clinical need for personnel deployed to JE endemic areas. The U.S. military has been using IXIARO® for the past ten years and we are excited to continue to help protect military personnel, their families, civilian government service personnel, and government contractors from this potentially deadly disease.”

IXIARO is the only JE vaccine approved by the U.S. FDA, having been developed through a cooperative research and development agreement with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Valneva markets and distributes IXIARO directly to the U.S. military and U.S. private market.