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FDA Accepts Valneva’s Chikungunya Vaccine License Application for Priority Review

Valneva SE (Nasdaq: VALN; Euronext Paris: VLA), a specialty vaccine company, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has completed a filing review of its Biologics License Application for Valneva’s single-shot chikungunya vaccine candidate VLA1553 and has determined that the application is sufficiently complete to permit a substantive review. The review classification is Priority.

VLA1553 has been assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) review goal date at the end of August 2023, which is the date by which the FDA intends to take action on the application. The FDA’s acknowledgement of filing does not mean that a license will be granted, nor does it represent any evaluation of the adequacy of the data submitted.

About Chikungunya

Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by the chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a Togaviridae virus, transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. Chikungunya virus often causes sudden large outbreaks with high attack rates, affecting one-third to three-quarters of the population in areas where the virus is circulating. There are no preventive vaccines or effective treatments available and, as such, chikungunya is considered to be a major public health threat. As of July 2022, there were more than 3 million reported cases in the Americas and the economic impact is considered to be significant. The medical and economic burden is expected to grow as the CHIKV primary mosquito vectors continue to spread geographically. Infection leads to symptomatic disease in up to 97% of humans after three to seven days following the mosquito bite. While mortality with CHIKV is low, morbidity is high. Clinical symptoms include acute onset of fever, debilitating joint and muscle pain, headache, nausea, rash and chronic arthralgia. It is estimated that over three quarters of the world’s population live in areas at-risk of CHIKV transmission. High risk areas of infection are places where chikungunya virus-carrying mosquitos are currently endemic, including the Americas, parts of Africa, and Southeast Asia.

About VLA1553

VLA1553 is a live-attenuated, single dose investigational vaccine candidate targeting the chikungunya virus, which has spread to over 100 countries. It has been designed by deleting a part of the chikungunya virus genome.

To make VLA1553 more accessible to Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC), Valneva and Instituto Butantan in Brazil signed an agreement in January 2021 for the development, manufacturing and marketing of VLA1553. The collaboration falls within the framework of the agreement signed between CEPI and Valneva in July 2019, which provides funding of up to $24.6 million with support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program.

Valneva reported final data from the pivotal Phase 3 trial of VLA1553 in March 2022, final lot-to-lot consistency results in May 2022 and positive twelve-month persistence data in December 2022.

If approved, VLA1553 would expand Valneva’s existing commercial vaccines portfolio and as such, Valneva intends to commercialize this vaccine, leveraging its existing manufacturing and commercial operations.

About Valneva SE

Valneva is a specialty vaccine company focused on the development, manufacturing and commercialization of prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases with significant unmet medical need. The Company takes a highly specialized and targeted approach to vaccine development and then applies its deep understanding of vaccine science to develop prophylactic vaccines addressing these diseases. Valneva has leveraged its expertise and capabilities both to commercialize three vaccines and to rapidly advance a broad range of vaccine candidates into and through the clinic, including candidates against the chikungunya virus and Lyme disease.