Bavarian Nordic A/S reported further progress in the development of a prophylactic vaccine against the equine encephalitis virus . The program, which is funded by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Project Management Office for Medical Countermeasure Systems (JPM-MCS) through a multi-year agreement of up to USD 36 million, aims to develop a vaccine against three separate strains of the equine encephalitis virus, Eastern (EEEV), Venezuelan (VEEV), and Western (WEEV), for which there are currently no preventative vaccines available. The vaccine is based on Bavarian Nordic's proprietary, poxviral MVA-BN® platform, which due to its large genome is able to encode multiple antigens, thus providing the potential to protect against multiple diseases. Since award of the contract in March 2018, Bavarian Nordic has received incremental funding to support the preclinical development, GMP manufacturing and the funding to support a dose ranging Phase 1 clinical trial in 45 healthy volunteers. The study is planned to be initiated in the second half of 2019, with topline results available in 2020. A successful Phase 1, based on demonstrating a favorable safety and immunogenicity could lead to follow-on funding, beyond the initial contract award of USD 36 million, to support preclinical, clinical development and manufacturing to support licensure in the U.S.