It’s been a patchy year for vaccine specialist Valneva SE, in which it saw European orders for its delayed COVID-19 vaccine dry up but then received a €90.5 million (US$92.1 million) investment from Pfizer Inc. as its Lyme disease vaccine entered phase III. The firm has now hit another setback after the U.S. Department of Defense decided not to take an option for a second year in  contract to supply a Japanese encephalitis vaccine, Ixiaro.