Vaccine company Valneva SE (Nasdaq:VALN) (Euronext Paris:VLA) announced on Monday that it has signed a new contract valued at a minimum of USD32m with the US Department of Defense (DoD) for the supply of its Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccine, IXIARO.

Under this one-year contract the DoD will buy a minimum of USD32m worth of IXIARO vaccines, with an option to procure additional doses over the next 12 months. Deliveries will commence immediately.

Welcoming the agreement, Dipal Patel, chief commercial officer of Valneva, said: "The US military has trusted IXIARO for over ten years to help protect military personnel, their families, civilian government service personnel and government contractors from this potentially deadly disease."

IXIARO is the sole JE vaccine approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), developed in collaboration with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. In the US, Valneva directly markets and distributes IXIARO to both the military and private travel market.

Valneva's Japanese encephalitis vaccine is intended for active immunisation against the disease for individuals travelling to or residing in endemic areas. It holds marketing approvals in the US, Europe, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Israel under the brand name IXIARO, as well as in Australia and New Zealand, where it is marketed as JESPECT.

Japanese encephalitis is an infectious disease found mainly in Asia. It is fatal in approximately 30% of those who show symptoms, and leaves half of survivors with permanent brain damage.