As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 9, 2021.

Registration No. 333-

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM F-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

Valneva SE

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Valneva SE

6 rue Alain Bombard

44800 Saint-Herblain, France

+33 2 28 07 37 10

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)

Valneva USA, Inc.

910 Clopper Road, Suite 160S

Gaithersburg, MD 20878

+ 1 301 556 4500

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

Copies of all communications, including communications sent to agent for service, should be sent to:

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after this Registration Statement becomes effective.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act, check the following box:  ☐

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.

Emerging growth company  ☒

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐

Calculation of Registration Fee

The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and we are not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

Subject To Completion, Dated April 9, 2021.

PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS

Ordinary Shares

(Consisting of              Ordinary Shares in the Form of American Depositary Shares to be sold in the United States and              Ordinary Shares to be sold outside of the United States)

This is a public offering of                  ordinary shares of Valneva SE, which consists of (i) a public offering in the United States of                  ordinary shares in the form of American Depositary Shares, or ADSs, each representing the right to receive                  ordinary shares, which we refer to as the “U.S. offering,” and (ii) a concurrent offering of                  ordinary shares outside the United States exclusively offered to “qualified investors,” as such term is defined in article 2(e) of Regulation (EU) No. 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and Council of June 14, 2017, which we refer to as the “European offering.” We refer to the U.S. offering and the concurrent European offering as the “global offering.” These ordinary shares are being offering directly or in the form of ADSs which may be evidenced by American Depositary Receipts, or ADRs.

This is our initial public offering of our ADSs in the United States and no public market exists for our ADSs. We intend to apply to list our ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “VALN.” Our ordinary shares are listed on Euronext Paris under the symbol “VLA.”

The final offering price per ADS in U.S. dollars and the corresponding offering price per ordinary share in euros will be determined through negotiations between us and the representatives of the underwriters for the offering, and by reference to the prevailing market prices of our ordinary shares on Euronext Paris after taking into account market conditions and other factors.

On                      , 2021, the last reported sale price of our ordinary shares on Euronext Paris was €     per ordinary share, equivalent to a price of $     per ADS, assuming an exchange rate of €1.00 = $                , the exchange rate on                 , 2021.

We are an “emerging growth company” as defined under U.S. federal securities laws and, as such, will be subject to reduced public company reporting requirements for this prospectus and future filings.

Investing in our ADSs and ordinary shares involves risks. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 14 to read about factors you should consider before buying our ordinary shares or ADSs.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, nor any U.S. state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

To the extent that the underwriters sell more than                  ordinary shares (which may be in the form of ADSs), the underwriters have the option to purchase, within 30 days from the date of this prospectus, up to an additional                  shares from us at the initial price to the public.

The total number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) to be sold in the U.S. offering and the European offering (including upon exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase, within 30 days from the date of this prospectus, additional ordinary shares and ADSs) is subject to reallocation between them.

The underwriters expect to deliver the ADSs to the purchasers in the offering on or about                 , 2021.

Prospectus dated                 , 2021.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

We are responsible for the information contained in this prospectus and any free-writing prospectus we prepare or authorize. We and the underwriters have not authorized anyone to provide you with different information, and we and the underwriters take no responsibility for any other information others may give you. We are not, and the underwriters are not, making an offer to sell these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. You should not assume that the information contained in this prospectus is accurate as of any date other than its date.

For investors outside the United States: neither we nor any of the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus or any free writing prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside the United States who come into possession of this prospectus or any free writing prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the global offering of the ADSs and ordinary shares and the distribution of this prospectus and any free writing prospectus outside the United States.

We are incorporated in France, and a majority of our outstanding securities are owned by non-U.S. residents. Under the rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, we are currently eligible for treatment as a “foreign private issuer.” As a foreign private issuer, we will not be required to file periodic reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as domestic registrants whose securities are registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act.

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Presentation of Financial Information

We maintain our books and records in euros and we prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IASB. None of our financial statements were prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. Our financial statements included in this prospectus are presented in euro and, unless otherwise specified, all monetary amounts are in euro. All references in this prospectus to “$,” “U.S. dollars,” and “dollars” means U.S. dollars and all references to “€” and “euro,” mean euro, unless otherwise noted. Unless otherwise indicated, certain euro amounts contained in this prospectus have been translated into U.S. dollars at the rate of €1.00 to $1.2230, which was the noon buying rate of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on December 31, 2020, the last business day of our fiscal period ended December 31, 2020. Such U.S. dollar amounts are not necessarily indicative of the amounts of U.S. dollars that could actually have been purchased upon exchange of euro at the dates indicated. Throughout this prospectus, references to ADSs mean ADSs or ordinary shares represented by such ADSs, as the case may be.

Market, Industry and Other Data

Unless otherwise indicated, information contained in this prospectus concerning our industry and the markets in which we operate, including our general expectations and market position, market opportunity and market size estimates, is based on information from independent industry analysts, third-party sources and management estimates. Management estimates are derived from publicly available information released by independent industry analysts and third-party sources, as well as data from our internal research, and are based on assumptions made by us based on such data and our knowledge of such industry and market, which we believe to be reasonable. In addition, while we believe the market opportunity information included in this prospectus is reliable and is based on reasonable assumptions, such data involves risks and uncertainties and is subject to change based on various factors, including those discussed under the heading “Risk Factors.”

Trademarks and Service Marks

“Valneva,” the Valneva logo, “IXIARO,” “JESPECT,” “DUKORAL” and other trademarks or service marks of Valneva SE appearing in this prospectus are the property of Valneva or its subsidiaries. Solely for convenience, the trademarks, service marks and trade names referred to in this prospectus are listed without the ® and ^™ symbols, but such references should not be construed as any indicator that their respective owners will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, their right thereto. All other trademarks, trade names and service marks appearing in this prospectus are the property of their respective owners. We do not intend to use or display other companies’ trademarks and trade names to imply any relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any other companies.

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RISK FACTORS

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Capital Needs

We have incurred and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant operational losses over the next several years and may never achieve or maintain profitability.

We have a history of incurring significant net losses. Our net loss was €64.4 million and €1.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. As of December 31, 2020, we had an accumulated net loss of €233.5 million. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and substantial operating losses over the next several years. Since inception, we have devoted a significant amount of our efforts to identifying, researching and conducting pre-clinical and clinical activities of our product candidates, building our manufacturing capabilities, building our commercial and sales infrastructure, organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital and establishing our intellectual property portfolio. The net losses we incur may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if, and as, we:

Our ability to be profitable in the future will largely depend on our ability to generate sales of our commercial products and to obtain regulatory approval for and commercialize our product candidates. We are currently substantially dependent on sales of our two commercial products, DUKORAL and IXIARO, for revenue. Our product candidates, including our Lyme, chikungunya, and COVID-19 vaccines, have not received and may not receive regulatory approval. Unless and until we obtain this regulatory approval in order to commercialize our product candidates, the likelihood and amount of our future operational losses will depend, in part, on the manufacturing and commercialization of our approved products, the pace and amount of our future expenditures and our ability to obtain funding through milestone or royalty payments under our license and collaboration agreements, equity or debt financings, strategic collaborations and government grants and tax credits. Additionally, our future revenues will depend upon the size of any markets in which our products or product candidates have received approval, and market acceptance, reimbursement from third-party payors and market share. We expect that our main sources of income for the near- and medium-term will be revenue from sales of our approved products and third-party products, revenue from licensing and service agreements and grants.

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Any of these factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with biopharmaceutical product development and commercialization, we are unable to accurately predict the timing or amount of expenses or when, or if, we will be able to achieve or maintain profitability. If we are required by regulatory authorities to perform studies in addition to those currently expected, or if there are any delays in the initiation and completion of our clinical trials or the development of any of our product candidates, our expenses could increase.

Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable would decrease the value of our company and could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our research and development efforts, expand our business or continue our operations.

DUKORAL and IXIARO are aimed at diseases that largely threaten travelers. If international travel does not resume as quickly or as much as anticipated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this will continue to significantly adversely affect the sale of these vaccines.

DUKORAL and IXIARO are aimed at diseases that largely threaten travelers to particular regions. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, travel has significantly decreased worldwide, and many countries have instituted travel restrictions and advisories. As a result, sales of these vaccines have decreased significantly, adversely impacting our financial results. If international travel does not resume as quickly or as much as anticipated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, for example because a COVID-19 vaccine is not available as quickly as expected, our revenues will be significantly adversely affected, and we may not be able to continue the development of our vaccine candidates against chikungunya or Lyme disease without additional financing. Additionally, if our chikungunya vaccine candidate receives regulatory approval and international travel has not resumed to expected levels at that point in time, sales of this vaccine may be less than expected, because we anticipate that it would be used by travelers.

Even if this global offering is successful, we will require substantial additional funding to finance our operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, we could be forced to delay, reduce or terminate certain of our development programs or other operations.

As of December 31, 2020, we had total assets of €449.2 million, including cash and cash equivalents of €204.4 million. Based upon our current operating plan, we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2020, together with the proceeds from this offering, will fund our current operating plans through at least                . However, our operating plan may change as a result of many factors currently unknown to us, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned. Moreover, it is particularly difficult to estimate with certainty our future expenses given the dynamic and rapidly evolving nature of our business and the COVID-19 pandemic environment generally. Investment in product development in the healthcare industry, including of biopharmaceutical products, is highly speculative because it entails substantial upfront capital expenditures and significant risk that any potential product candidate will fail to demonstrate adequate effect or an acceptable safety profile, gain regulatory approval and become commercially viable. We will need to raise additional capital to complete the development and commercialization of our product candidates and fund certain of our existing manufacturing and other commitments. We expect to finance our cash needs through public or private equity or debt financings, third-party (including government) funding and marketing and distribution arrangements, as well as other collaborations, strategic alliances and licensing arrangements, or any combination of these approaches. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:

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Identifying potential product candidates and conducting pre-clinical testing and clinical trials is a time-consuming, expensive and uncertain process that takes years to complete, and we may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain regulatory approval and achieve product sales for our product candidates in development. In addition, our product candidates, if approved, may not achieve commercial success. Accordingly, we may need or choose to seek additional financing to achieve our business objectives.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve rapidly and has already resulted in a significant disruption of global financial markets. If the disruption persists and deepens, we could experience an inability to access additional capital, which could in the future negatively affect our capacity for certain corporate development transactions or our ability to make other important, opportunistic investments. Adequate additional financing may not be available to us in sufficient amounts or on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on attractive terms, we could be forced to delay, reduce or altogether terminate certain of our research and development programs or future commercialization efforts, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition, we may seek additional capital due to favorable market conditions or strategic considerations even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans.

Any additional fundraising efforts may divert our management from their day-to-day activities, which may adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates. In addition, we cannot guarantee that future financing will be available in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. Under French law, our share capital may be increased only with shareholders’ approval at an extraordinary general shareholders’ meeting on the basis of a report from the Management Board. In addition, the French Commercial Code imposes certain limitations on our ability to price certain offerings of our share capital without preferential subscription rights (droit préférentiel de souscription), which limitation may prevent us from successfully completing any such offering. See “Description of Share Capital—Key Provisions of Our Bylaws and French Law Affecting Our Ordinary Shares.”

Moreover, the terms of any financing may adversely affect the holdings or the rights of our shareholders and the issuance of additional securities, whether equity or debt, by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our ordinary shares or the ADSs to decline. The sale of additional equity or convertible securities would dilute our shareholders. We may seek funds through arrangements with collaborative partners or otherwise at an earlier stage of product development than otherwise would be desirable and we may be required to relinquish rights to some of our technologies or product candidates or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

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Our COVID-19 vaccine candidate is still in development and will require substantial financial resources and we may ultimately be unsuccessful in our efforts to develop, manufacture and successfully commercialize a COVID-19 vaccine.

In response to the recent outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, we are pursuing a vaccine candidate, VLA2001, to address the disease. Our testing and development of VLA2001 remains ongoing, and we may be unable to produce a vaccine that successfully treats the virus in a timely manner and in sufficient quantities, if at all.

We are committing substantial financial resources, particularly research and development expenses, investment in our manufacturing facilities and personnel, to the development of a potential vaccine for COVID-19, which may cause delays in or otherwise negatively impact our other development programs. While we believe investing in research and development and our manufacturing facilities is crucial to the potential success of VLA2001, such capital commitments plus any future commitments, in aggregate, may, in the future, exceed our available cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments. There can be no assurance that sufficient funds will be available to us on attractive terms or at all. If we are unable to obtain additional funding from these or other sources, it may be necessary to significantly reduce our rate of spending through reductions in staff and delaying, scaling back, or stopping certain research and development programs. Insufficient liquidity may also require us to relinquish rights to product candidates at an earlier stage of development or on less favorable terms than we might otherwise choose. Our business could be negatively impacted by our allocation of significant resources to a global health threat that is unpredictable and constantly evolving, as a result of which our potential vaccine candidates, if developed, may not be sufficiently effective or meet the current needs of existing customers and global demand. Alternatively, the threat of SARS-CoV-2 or of a particular strain of the virus could rapidly change, which could lead to a decrease in demand for our vaccine candidate. If we do not successfully develop VLA2001 and receive regulatory approval, or if we fail to successfully manufacture or commercialize VLA2001 if approved, we may not be able to achieve a return on our investment.

The speed at which multiple stakeholders are moving to create, test and approve a vaccine for COVID-19 is highly unusual and may increase the risks associated with traditional vaccine development. Given this accelerated timeline, we and regulators, such as the MHRA, may make decisions more rapidly than is typical. Evolving or changing plans or priorities of governments and regulatory bodies, including based on new knowledge of COVID-19, how the disease affects the human body and the longevity of protection given by existing vaccines, the identification of potential side effects and the resulting choices regarding the deployment of specific vaccines in various countries or in various age groups, may significantly affect our plans and pathways for clinical development, regulatory approval, manufacturing and commercialization of VLA2001. These processes are interconnected and there can be no guarantee that evolutions in one process will not impact one or more of the others. For example, health authorities, including the MHRA, have started to shift attention to the need for a booster vaccine regimen. If VLA2001 is used as part of a booster vaccine regimen, we may need to redevelop our manufacturing process to produce a booster dose, which could result in additional time and expense and divert our manufacturing resources away from production of other products. In addition, we may seek to adapt VLA2001 to target different variants of the virus as the global pandemic evolves. The regulatory path and manufacturing requirements for adaptations of VLA2001 are uncertain and could require substantial investment that we may not ultimately recover through our commercial efforts. Furthermore, our Phase 3 clinical trial for VLA2001 will compare our vaccine candidate to another vaccine that has already been authorized for use. If we were no longer able to use such other vaccine in our Phase 3 clinical trial, for example because of a disruption to supply or new information regarding its safety or efficacy, or if concerns about the safety or efficacy of the other vaccine deterred participant enrollment in the trial, our development of VLA2001 would be significantly impacted.

We also face substantial risks and uncertainties in the manufacture of VLA2001. Manufacturing vaccines is a complex process and it is not uncommon for yields to vary materially from plan. In addition, estimating the expected timing and yields of a vaccine candidate like VLA2001 depends on many variables that are currently unknown, such as the commercial dose level, dosing schedule and intended use of the product. We cannot

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guarantee that we will be able to timely and effectively produce VLA2001 in adequate quantities to meet global demand and our contractual obligations. In particular, along with the initial results for our Phase 1/2 clinical trial of VLA2001, we announced in April 2021 that we believe that the timeline for the delivery of the 60 million doses of VLA2001 ordered by the UK Government for delivery in 2021 will extend into the first quarter of 2022 and that our overall manufacturing capacity and ability to meet specific delivery schedules will be dependent on the UK Government’s vaccine requirements and other production-related factors.

Additionally, we plan to manufacture VLA2001 in our facilities in Livingston, Scotland and Solna, Sweden and we will be dependent on both facilities in order to supply quantities of VLA2001 as required by the UK Supply Agreement (as defined below) and any other agreements we may enter into with other customers. Any restrictions on the import or export of COVID-19 vaccines such as VLA2001 into or from the EU could adversely impact our manufacturing and distribution capabilities and have a substantial impact on our business, financial condition, prospects and results of operations.

Furthermore, other parties have developed and are developing vaccines for COVID-19, some of which have already received regulatory approval and begun distribution in our target markets. Several of these other parties are much larger than we are and have access to larger pools of capital, including government funding, and broader manufacturing infrastructure. Additionally, VLA2001 is an inactivated, adjuvanted whole virus vaccine candidate and other parties may also develop this type of vaccine candidate against COVID-19. The earlier market entry of these other vaccines, and their actual or perceived efficacious or success relative to our own, may lead to diversion of funding away from us, decreased demand for VLA2001 if approved and difficulty in finding participants for our clinical trials. We may be unable to commercialize VLA2001 and establish a competitive market share before the COVID-19 pandemic is contained or significantly diminished. If our competitors are successful in producing a more efficacious vaccine or other treatments for COVID-19, including for variants of the virus, or if our competitors are able to manufacture and distribute any such vaccines or treatments with greater efficiency, there may be a diversion of potential governmental and other funding away from us and toward such other parties. All of these factors could substantially impact our ability to complete the development of, commercialize, and profit from our COVID-19 vaccine candidate. See “Business—Competition” for further discussion on COVID-19 vaccine competition.

In September 2020, we entered into a supply agreement, or the UK Supply Agreement, with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of the United Kingdom, or the UK Authority, pursuant to which we are obligated to manufacture and supply a COVID-19 vaccine to the UK Authority in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or the UK, including an obligation for us to upgrade our manufacturing facilities in Scotland. Pursuant to the terms of the UK Supply Agreement, the UK Authority has an option to purchase additional doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. The UK Authority may not chose to fully exercise such option, and we may not realize the full economic potential of this agreement, particularly if we are unable to manufacture sufficient quantities of VLA2001 to meet the UK Authority’s demand. In addition, pursuant to the terms of the UK Supply Agreement, the UK Authority may terminate the agreement for a variety of reasons. The UK Authority’s termination of the UK Supply Agreement could substantially harm our business, financial condition, prospects and results of operations. See “Business—Material Agreements—UK Supply Agreement” for further detail on the terms of this agreement.

Finally, we are developing our COVID-19 vaccine using a specific virus strain obtained from the National Institute for Infectious Diseases “Lazzaro Spallanzani” IRCCS, or INMI, in Italy through a biological material transfer agreement between us and INMI as the representative of the European Virus Archive goes Global. Under that agreement, any use of this virus strain for commercial purposes is not permitted and conditioned on a further agreement with INMI. We initiated the process of negotiating a commercial agreement in June of 2020. In November of 2020, the Italian Ministry of Health referred us to the World Health Organization, or the WHO, as the party from which to obtain the commercial rights following the Italian government’s donation of the same virus strain to the WHO’s newly formed globally agreed system for sharing pathogen materials and clinical samples. We contacted the WHO in December of 2020 and continue to be in contact with INMI, the WHO and the Italian Ministry of Health regarding the commercial agreement. It will take some time to determine the

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applicable terms, including price, for the commercial agreement and we cannot predict how long this process may take. We cannot provide assurance that we will have obtained the required commercial agreement in time to begin commercializing our COVID-19 vaccine immediately following regulatory approval, if such approval is received. A substantial delay in agreeing on terms for commercial use of this virus strain in our COVID-19 vaccine could have an adverse impact on our ability to fulfil our obligations under the UK Supply Agreement and other agreements, the predictability of our financial results and on our financial condition, reputation and results of operations. Furthermore, failure to obtain the required commercial agreement or another agreement allowing for commercialization of our COVID-19 vaccine could substantially impair our business strategy and could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

The terms of our debt arrangements place restrictions on our operating and financial flexibility.

In February 2020, we entered into a debt financing agreement, or the Financing Agreement, with Deerfield and OrbiMed. The loan bears interest at 9.95% that, due to the quarterly interest calculation method applied, results in an aggregate annual interest paid of 10.09%. As of December 31, 2020, we had €54.1 million drawn down in two tranches under the Financing Agreement.

As a result of deferred recognition of revenues and the effects of COVID-19 on product sales, we were previously at risk of not meeting the minimum revenue covenant under the Financing Agreement. In July 2020, we reached an agreement with our lenders that this minimum revenue covenant will not apply until December 31, 2020 in exchange for a minimum cash requirement of €75 million (instead of €35 million) during that period. On January 15, 2021, a new amendment was executed to (i) bring the minimum liquidity covenant to the amount of €50.0 million in 2021 and 2022 and €35.0 million thereafter and (ii) modify the minimum revenue covenant to include a quarterly minimum consolidated net revenue covenant (excluding grants) representing an annual total of €64.0 million in 2021, €103.75 million in 2022 and €115.0 million thereafter. If our consolidated net revenues (excluding grants) were to fall below these amounts, this could result in additional costs (up to 10 additional points of interest over the duration of the default) and/or an early repayment obligation (payment of the principal increased by 8% and of an indemnity representing the interests expected until March 2023).

Compliance with these covenants under the Financing Agreement may limit our flexibility in operating our business and our ability to take actions that might be advantageous to us and our shareholders. For example, if we fail to meet our minimum liquidity covenants and we are unable to raise additional funds or obtain a waiver or other amendment to the Financing Agreement, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate certain of our clinical development efforts. In addition, if we were unable to pay the full amount due in case of certain events of default, our lenders could exercise their rights to take possession and dispose of the collateral, which includes substantially all of our intellectual property, securing the Financing Agreement for their benefit. Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be substantially harmed if this occurs.

Risks Related to the Development and Commercialization of Our Product Candidates

Our future success is substantially dependent on the successful clinical development, regulatory approval and commercialization of our product candidates in a timely manner. If we are not able to obtain required regulatory approvals, we will not be able to commercialize our product candidates and our ability to generate product revenue will be adversely affected.

We have invested a significant portion of our time and financial resources in the development of our product candidates. Our business is dependent on our ability to successfully complete development of, obtain regulatory approval for, and, if approved, successfully commercialize our product candidates in a timely manner. We may face unforeseen challenges in our product development strategy, and we can provide no assurances that our product candidates will be successful in clinical trials or will ultimately receive regulatory approval from any or all of the agencies from which we seek such approval. Generally, failure to develop a vaccine that we can successfully commercialize could result in the total loss of our investment in its development.

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While we have obtained regulatory approval for two of our products, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for the product candidates we are currently developing or may seek to develop in the future. Neither we nor any current or future collaborator is permitted to market any product candidates in Europe, the United States or any other geographies until we or our collaborators receive regulatory approval from the European Medicines Agency, or the EMA, FDA, or applicable regulatory agency. The time required to conduct clinical trials and obtain approval or other marketing authorizations by the EMA, FDA and other regulatory authorities is unpredictable and typically takes many years and depends upon numerous factors, including the substantial discretion of the regulatory authorities. In addition, approval policies, regulations or the type and amount of clinical data necessary to gain approval may change during the course of a product candidate’s clinical development and may vary among jurisdictions.

Prior to obtaining approval to commercialize any product candidate in Europe, the United States or any other geographies, we must demonstrate with substantial evidence from well-controlled clinical trials, and to the satisfaction of the EMA, FDA or other regulatory authorities, that such product candidate is safe and effective for its intended uses. Results from pre-clinical studies and clinical trials can be interpreted in different ways. Even if we believe that the pre-clinical or clinical data for our product candidates are promising, such data may not be sufficient to support approval by the EMA, FDA and other regulatory authorities. The EMA, FDA or other regulatory authorities may also require us to conduct additional pre-clinical studies or clinical trials for our product candidates either prior to or post-approval, or it may object to elements of our clinical development program, requiring their alteration.

Of the large number of products in development, only a small percentage successfully complete the EMA’s, FDA’s or other regulatory authorities’ approval processes and are commercialized. The lengthy approval or marketing authorization process as well as the unpredictability of future clinical trial results may result in our failing to obtain regulatory approval or marketing authorization to market our product candidates, which would significantly harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Even if we eventually complete clinical testing and receive approval of a biologics license application, or BLA, or foreign marketing application for our product candidates, the EMA, FDA or other comparable regulatory authorities may grant approval or other marketing authorization contingent on the performance of costly additional clinical trials, including post-market clinical trials. The EMA, FDA or other comparable regulatory authorities also may approve or authorize for marketing a product candidate for a more limited indication or patient population than we originally request, and the EMA, FDA or other comparable regulatory authorities may not approve or authorize the labeling that we believe is necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of a product candidate. Any delay in obtaining, or inability to obtain, applicable regulatory approval or other marketing authorization would delay, inhibit or prevent commercialization of that product candidate and would adversely impact our business and prospects.

In addition, the EMA, FDA or other comparable regulatory authorities may change their policies, adopt additional regulations or revise existing regulations or take other actions, which may prevent or delay approval of our future product candidates under development on a timely basis. Such policy or regulatory changes could impose additional requirements upon us that could delay our ability to obtain approvals, increase the costs of compliance or restrict our ability to maintain any marketing authorizations we may have obtained.

Furthermore, even if we obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, successful commercialization will depend on a number of factors. We may still need to develop a commercial organization to support commercialization of the product or allocate additional resources to our existing commercial organizations. We will also need to establish a commercially viable pricing structure, obtain approval for coverage and adequate reimbursement from third-party and government payors, including government health administration authorities, and generate knowledge of and demand for our products. If we are unable to successfully commercialize our product candidates, we may not be able to generate sufficient revenue to continue our business.

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Success in pre-clinical studies or earlier clinical trials may not be indicative of results in future clinical trials and we cannot assure you that any ongoing, planned or future clinical trials will lead to results sufficient for the necessary regulatory approvals.

Success in pre-clinical testing and earlier clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials will generate the same results or otherwise provide adequate data to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of a product candidate. Pre-clinical and proof-of-concept studies and Phase 1 clinical trials are primarily designed to test safety, to study pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and to understand the side effects of product candidates at various doses and schedules. Success in pre-clinical studies and earlier clinical trials does not ensure that later efficacy trials will be successful, nor does it predict final results of clinical trials and regulatory approval. There can be significant variability in safety or efficacy results between different trials of the same product candidate due to numerous factors, including changes in trial protocols, differences in composition of the patient populations, adherence to the dosing regimen and other trial protocols and the rate of dropout among clinical trial participants. Our product candidates may fail to show the desired characteristics in clinical development sufficient to obtain regulatory approval, despite positive results in pre-clinical studies or having successfully advanced through earlier clinical trials. Similarly, success in pre-clinical studies or earlier clinical trials of VLA2001, such as our

recently announced positive initial data from our Phase 1/2 clinical trial, may show promise against a particular strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, but these results may not be indicative of VLA2001’s potential efficacy against different strains, or its efficacy as a booster. As a result, interim, “top-line” and preliminary data that we may publish are subject to the risk that one or more of the reported clinical outcomes may materially change as clinical trials progress and such data should be viewed with caution until final data are available.

A trial design that is considered appropriate for regulatory approval includes a sufficiently large sample size with appropriate statistical power, as well as proper control of bias, to allow a meaningful interpretation of the results. If we conduct clinical trials with a small number of subjects, we may not achieve a statistically significant result or the same level of statistical significance, if any, that would have been possible to achieve in a larger trial. The preliminary results of trials with smaller sample sizes can be disproportionately influenced by the impact the treatment had on a few individuals, which limits the ability to generalize the results across a broader community, making the trial results less reliable than trials with a larger number of subjects. As a result, there may be less certainty that such product candidates would achieve a statistically significant effect in any future clinical trials.

In addition, the design of a clinical trial can determine whether its results will support approval of a product, and flaws in the design of a clinical trial may not become apparent until the clinical trial is well advanced. As an organization, we may be unable to design and execute a clinical trial to support regulatory approval, including conditional approval or emergency use authorization, or EUA, for any given current or future product candidate. Many companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in late-stage clinical trials even after achieving promising results in pre-clinical testing and earlier clinical trials. Data obtained from pre-clinical and clinical activities are subject to varying interpretations, which may delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. In addition, we may experience regulatory delays or rejections as a result of many factors, including changes in regulatory policy during the period of our product candidate development. Any such delays could negatively impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Clinical product development involves a lengthy and expensive process. We may incur additional costs and encounter substantial delays or difficulties in our clinical trials that could delay or prevent the commercialization of our product candidates.

We may not commercialize, market, promote or sell any product candidate without obtaining marketing approval from the EMA, FDA or other comparable regulatory authority, and we may never receive such approvals. The time required to obtain approval by the EMA, FDA and other comparable regulatory authorities is unpredictable, typically takes many years following the commencement of clinical trials and depends upon numerous factors, including the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidates involved. It is impossible to predict when or if any of our product candidates will prove effective or safe in humans and will receive regulatory approval.

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Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of our product candidates, we must complete pre-clinical development and then conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates in humans. Clinical testing is expensive, is difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and is uncertain as to outcome. We cannot guarantee that any clinical trials will be conducted as planned or completed on schedule, if at all. A failure of one or more clinical trials can occur at any stage of testing. Moreover, pre-clinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in pre-clinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products.

We may experience numerous unforeseen events prior to, during, or as a result of, clinical trials that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize our product candidates, including the following:

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In addition, if we make manufacturing or formulation changes to our product candidates, we may need to conduct additional testing to bridge our modified product candidate to earlier versions. Clinical trial delays could also shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates, if approved, or allow our competitors to bring competing products to market before we do, which could impair our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and may harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Additionally, if the results of our clinical trials are inconclusive or if there are safety concerns or serious adverse events associated with our product candidates, we may:

Our product development costs will also increase if we experience delays in testing or obtaining marketing approvals. We do not know whether any of our pre-clinical studies or clinical trials will begin as planned, need to be restructured or be completed on schedule, if at all. Any inability to successfully complete pre-clinical and clinical development could result in additional costs to us or impair our ability to generate revenue from future product sales or other sources.

The EMA, FDA and other comparable foreign authorities have substantial discretion in the approval process, and determining when or whether regulatory approval will be obtained for any of our product candidates. Even if we believe the data collected from clinical trials of our product candidates are promising, such data may not be sufficient to support approval by the EMA FDA or any other regulatory authority. Further, we, the EMA, the FDA or another foreign regulatory authority or an institutional review board or ethics committee may suspend our clinical trials at any time if it appears that we or our collaborators are failing to conduct a trial in accordance with regulatory requirements, including the FDA’s current Good Clinical Practice, or GCP, regulations, that we are exposing participants to unacceptable health risks, or if the EMA, FDA or another foreign regulatory authority finds deficiencies in our investigational new drug applications, or INDs, or clinical trial applications, or CTAs, respectively, or the conduct of these trials. Moreover, we may not be able to file INDs to commence additional clinical trials on the timelines we expect because our filing schedule is dependent on further pre-clinical and manufacturing progress. Therefore, we cannot predict with any certainty the schedule for commencement and completion of future clinical trials. If we experience delays in the commencement or completion of our clinical trials, or if we terminate a clinical trial prior to completion, the commercial prospects of our product candidates could be negatively impacted, and our ability to generate revenue from our product candidates may be delayed.

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Enrollment and retention of subjects in clinical trials is an expensive and time-consuming process and could be delayed, made more difficult or rendered impossible by multiple factors outside our control.

Identifying and qualifying subjects to participate in our clinical trials is critical to our success. We are developing VLA15 for Lyme disease, VLA1553 for chikungunya and VLA2001 for COVID-19, and we intend to develop other vaccine candidates in the future. We may encounter difficulties in enrolling subjects in our clinical trials, thereby delaying or preventing development and approval of our product candidates. Even once enrolled, we may be unable to retain a sufficient number of subjects to complete any of our trials. Subject enrollment and retention in clinical trials depends on many factors, including the nature of the trial protocol, the existing body of safety and efficacy data, the number and nature of competing vaccines and ongoing clinical trials of competing vaccine candidates for the same indication, the proximity of subjects to clinical sites and the eligibility criteria for the trial. In addition, enrollment and retention of subjects in clinical trials could be disrupted by man-made or natural disasters, or public health pandemics or epidemics or other business interruptions, including the current COVID-19 pandemic and future outbreaks of the disease. In addition, public perception of vaccine safety issues may adversely influence willingness of subjects to participate in clinical trials. Additionally, granted EUAs may saturate the marketplace prior to our advancement or commercialization, as allowed, for any of the vaccine areas in which we are developing products.

We may also face particular challenges in enrolling subjects in clinical trials of VLA15, as Lyme disease is a seasonal disease. We may only have a short window each year in which to fully enroll subjects in a VLA15 clinical trial, and failure to enroll an adequate number of subjects, or any other delays in enrollment, could cause substantial delay in our VLA15 clinical program, as it could force us to wait another year for the applicable enrollment window for this disease.

Any negative results we may report in clinical trials of our product candidates may make it difficult or impossible to recruit and retain subjects in other clinical trials of that same product candidate. Delays or failures in planned subject enrollment or retention may result in increased costs, program delays or both, which could have a harmful effect on our ability to develop our product candidates or could render further development impossible. In addition, we may rely on CROs and clinical trial sites to ensure proper and timely conduct of our current and future clinical trials and, while we intend to enter into agreements governing their services, we will be limited in our ability to ensure their actual performance, including adherence to GCP.

The development of additional product candidates is risky and uncertain, and we can provide no assurances that we will be able to successfully develop additional vaccines for other diseases.

A core element of our business strategy is to expand our product pipeline. Efforts to identify, acquire or in-license, and then develop product candidates require substantial technical, financial and human resources, whether or not any product candidates are ultimately identified. Our efforts may initially show promise in identifying potential product candidates, yet fail to yield product candidates for clinical development, approved products or commercial revenue for many reasons, including the following:

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We have limited financial, manufacturing and management resources and, as a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater market potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product candidate through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in circumstances under which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such product candidate. In addition, we may not be successful in replicating our approach to development for other disease indications. If we are unsuccessful in identifying and developing additional product candidates or are unable to do so, our business may be harmed.

Our product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could delay or prevent their regulatory approval, limit their commercial potential or result in significant negative consequences following any potential marketing approval.

During the conduct of clinical trials, subjects report changes in their health, including illnesses, injuries and discomforts, to their physician. Often, it is not possible to determine whether or not the product candidate being studied caused these conditions. If regulatory authorities determine that any side effects experienced by subjects in our clinical trials are being caused by our vaccine candidates, they may require additional testing to confirm these determinations, if they occur.

In addition, it is possible that as we test our product candidates in larger, longer and more extensive clinical trials, or as use of these product candidates becomes more widespread if they receive regulatory approval, illnesses, injuries, discomforts and other adverse events that were not observed in earlier trials, as well as conditions that did not occur or went undetected in previous trials, will be reported by subjects. Many times, side effects are only detectable after investigational products are tested in large-scale pivotal trials or, in some cases, after they are made available to patients on a commercial scale after approval. If additional clinical experience indicates that any of our product candidates have side effects or cause serious or life-threatening side effects, the development of the product candidate may fail or be delayed, or, if the product candidate has received regulatory approval, such approval may be revoked, our reputation may be harmed, which would harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

If the market opportunities for our products and product candidates are smaller than we believe they are or any approval we obtain is based on a narrower definition of the patient population, our business may suffer.

We currently focus our efforts on commercialization of our approved products, IXIARO and DUKORAL for prevention of Japanese encephalitis and cholera, respectively, as well as development of our product candidates for the prevention of Lyme disease, chikungunya and COVID-19. Our estimated market opportunity, pricing estimates and available coverage and reimbursement may differ significantly from the actual market addressable by our products and product candidates. Our estimates with respect to market opportunity are based on our beliefs, assumptions and analyses. These estimates have been derived from a variety of sources, including the scientific literature, patient foundations or market research, and may prove to be incorrect. Further, new studies may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of the diseases we are targeting. The number of patients may turn out to be lower than expected. In addition, the disease for which we are developing a product vaccine may cease to be a public health concern. Likewise, the potentially addressable patient population for each of our products or product candidates may be limited or may not be receptive to receiving our vaccines or vaccine candidates, and new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or access. This may be due in part to reputational challenges that the vaccine industry is facing related to the growing momentum of the anti-vaccine movement in some regions or a distrust of vaccines against certain diseases or of the adjuvants contained in our vaccines. For example, there has been some negative public perception of Lyme disease vaccines as a result of the Lyme disease vaccine LYMErix, which was marketed by Smith Kline Beecham Biologicals and discontinued due to lack of market access and safety concerns, although it was later proven to be safe by an FDA advisory

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committee. If the market opportunities for our products or product candidates are smaller than we estimate, it could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We face substantial competition, and many of our competitors have significantly greater resources and experience, which may negatively impact our commercial opportunities.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are subject to intense competition and rapid and significant technological change. We have many potential competitors, including major pharmaceutical companies, specialized biotechnology firms, academic institutions, government agencies and private and public research institutions. Many of our competitors have significantly greater financial and technical resources, experience and expertise in:

Large and established companies, such as Merck & Co., Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, CSL Ltd, Sanofi Pasteur, SA, Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca, among others, compete in the general vaccine market. In particular, these companies may have greater experience and expertise in securing government contracts and grants to support their research and development efforts, conducting testing and clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals to market products, manufacturing such products on a broad scale and marketing approved products. Smaller or early-stage companies and research institutions also may prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established pharmaceutical companies. As these companies and research institutions develop their technologies, they may develop proprietary positions, which may prevent or limit our product development and commercialization efforts. If any of our competitors succeed in obtaining approval from the EMA, FDA or other regulatory authorities for their products sooner than we do or for products that are more effective or less costly than ours, our commercial opportunity could be significantly reduced. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors.

We are aware of companies with Japanese encephalitis vaccines as well as cholera vaccines. If and when these vaccines expand commercialization into the markets in which we compete, sales of our vaccines will be adversely affected. Competition is the primary factor affecting our prices outside the United States. We are also aware of companies with active vaccine development programs for Lyme disease, chikungunya and COVID-19. See

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“Business—Competition” for discussion of our competitors. Even if a manufacturer obtains an EUA or regulatory approval for a vaccine, it is likely that competitors will continue to work on new products that could be more efficacious and/or less expensive. Vaccines under development by competitors, including development programs of which we are not aware, may be more effective or further along in the development and regulatory approval process than our vaccine candidates. Even if our vaccine candidates receive EUA or regulatory approval, they may not achieve significant sales if other, more effective vaccines under development by our competitors are also approved.

In order to effectively compete, we will have to make substantial investments in development, testing, manufacturing and sales and marketing or partner with one or more established companies in one or more of these areas. We may not be successful in gaining significant market share for any approved product candidate and may not continue to be successful maintaining or gaining market share for our currently marketed products. Our technologies and vaccines also may be rendered obsolete or non-competitive as a result of products introduced by our competitors to the marketplace more rapidly and at a lower cost.

Even if any product candidates receive marketing approval, they may fail to achieve market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors or others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.

Even if any product candidates receive marketing approval, they may fail to gain market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community. If such product candidates do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenue and may not become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of any product candidate, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to:

Our efforts to educate physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community on the benefits of our product candidates may require significant resources and may never be successful. Such efforts may require more resources than are typically required due to the complex and distinctive nature of our product candidates. Because we expect sales of our product candidates, if approved, to generate a significant portion of our revenue for the foreseeable future, the failure of our product candidates to find market acceptance would harm our business.

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Our current products are, and any future product candidates for which we obtain regulatory approval for will be, subject to ongoing regulatory oversight.

Our currently approved products, and any future products we commercialize, if any, are subject to ongoing regulatory requirements for manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, advertising, promotion, sampling, record keeping and submission of safety and other post-market information. Any regulatory approvals that we receive for our product candidates may also be subject to a REMS or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing testing, including Phase 4 trials, and surveillance to monitor the quality, safety and efficacy of the product. Such regulatory requirements may differ from country to country depending on where we have received regulatory approval. Regulators may also subsequently limit or revise the indicated uses for which the product was originally marketed, which could significantly impact our sales. For example, if the agency supervising pharmaceutical products in Canada, which is our principal market for DUKORAL, were to reassess DUKORAL’s indications, this could have a significant negative impact on our sales.

In addition, biopharmaceutical manufacturers and their facilities are subject to ongoing review and periodic inspections by the EMA, FDA or other comparable regulators for compliance with cGMP requirements and adherence to commitments made in the NDA, BLA or foreign marketing application. If we, or a regulatory authority, discover previously unknown problems with a product, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured or if a regulatory authority disagrees with the promotion, marketing or labeling of that product, a regulatory authority may impose restrictions relative to that product, the manufacturing facility or us, including requesting a recall or requiring withdrawal of the product from the market or suspension of manufacturing.

If we fail or a third party fails to comply with applicable regulatory requirements for our products or any of our product candidates that receive regulatory approval in the future, a regulatory authority may:

Any government investigation of alleged violations of law could require us to expend significant time and resources in response and could generate negative publicity. The occurrence of any event or penalty described above may inhibit our ability to commercialize our product candidates and harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

The EMA’s, FDA’s and other regulatory authorities’ policies may change and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates. In addition, we cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative or executive action, in Europe, the United States or elsewhere.

It is difficult to predict how these executive actions, including any executive orders, will be implemented and the extent to which they will affect the EMA’s, FDA’s and other regulatory authorities’ ability to exercise its

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regulatory authority. If these executive actions impose constraints on the EMA’s, FDA’s and other regulatory authorities’ ability to engage in oversight and implementation activities in the normal course, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be negatively impacted.

We may be liable if regulatory enforcement agencies determine we have engaged in the off-label promotion of our products or have disseminated false or misleading labeling, advertising or promotional materials.

Our promotional activities, materials and training methods must comply with applicable laws and regulations, including laws and regulations prohibiting marketing claims that promote the off-label use of our products or that omit material facts or make false or misleading statements about the safety or efficacy of our products. We are responsible for training our marketing and sales force against promoting our product candidates for off-label use. However, in the United States, the FDA does not restrict or regulate a physician’s choice of treatment within the practice of medicine. Therefore, physicians may use our products off-label if deemed appropriate in their independent medical judgment. Certain other countries also do not restrict or regulate a physician’s choice of treatment within the practice of medicine. A regulatory agency also could conclude that a claim is misleading if it determines that there are inadequate nonclinical and/or clinical data supporting the claim, or if a claim fails to reveal material facts about the safety or efficacy of our products. Although our policy is to refrain from statements that could be considered off-label promotion of our products or false or misleading claims, a regulatory agency could disagree with the manner in which we advertise and promote our products. If a regulatory agency in the United States or certain other countries determines that our promotional activities or advertising materials promote an off-label use or make false or misleading claims, it could request that we modify our promotional materials or training content or subject us to regulatory or enforcement actions, including the issuance of an untitled letter, a warning letter, injunction, seizure, civil fines and criminal penalties.

In the United States, violations of the Federal Food Drug or Cosmetic Act, or FDCA, may also lead to investigations alleging violations of federal and state health care fraud and abuse laws, as well as state consumer protection laws, which may lead to costly penalties and may adversely impact our business. Recent court decisions in the United States have impacted FDA’s enforcement activity regarding off-label promotion in light of First Amendment considerations such that companies may share truthful and not misleading information that is otherwise consistent with a product’s FDA approved labeling; however, there are still significant risks in this area, in part due to the potential for False Claims Act exposure.

In addition, the off-label use of our products may increase the risk of product liability claims. Product liability claims are expensive to defend and could result in substantial damage awards against us and harm our reputation.

If we are unable to maintain and expand our sales and marketing capabilities on our own or with others, we may not be successful in increasing sales of our current products and commercializing future products, if approved.

To increase sales of our current products and third-party products pursuant to distribution agreements, as well as successfully commercialize any product candidate that may result from our development programs, we will need to maintain and continue to build out our sales and marketing capabilities, either on our own or with others. The continued development of our sales and marketing team will be expensive and time-consuming and could delay any product launch. We compete with many companies that currently have extensive, experienced and well-funded marketing and sales operations to recruit, hire, train and retain marketing and sales personnel, and will have to compete with those companies to recruit, hire, train and retain any of our own marketing and sales personnel. If we are unable to sustain and expand our sales and marketing team, we may be unable to compete successfully against these more established companies. Alternatively, if we choose to collaborate, either globally or on a territory-by-territory basis, with third parties that have direct sales forces and established distribution systems, either to augment our own sales force and distribution systems or in lieu of our own sales force and distribution systems, we will be required to negotiate and enter into arrangements with such third parties relating to the proposed collaboration. If we are unable to enter into such arrangements when needed, on acceptable terms, or at all, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any of our product candidates that receive regulatory approval or any such commercialization may experience delays or limitations.

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Our future growth depends, in part, on our ability to penetrate multiple markets, in which we would be subject to additional regulatory burdens and other risks and uncertainties.

Our future profitability will depend, in part, on our ability to continue to commercialize our products and, if approved, our product candidates, in markets in Europe, the United States and other countries where we maintain commercialization rights. As we continue to commercialize our products and begin to commercialize our product candidates, if approved, in multiple markets, we are subject to additional risks and uncertainties, including:

These and other risks associated with international operations may adversely affect our ability to attain or maintain profitable operations. Future sales of our products or our product candidates, if they are approved, will be dependent on purchasing decisions of and reimbursement from government health administration authorities, distributors and other organizations. As a result of adverse conditions affecting the global economy and credit and financial markets, including disruptions due to political instability or otherwise, these organizations may defer purchases, may be unable to satisfy their purchasing or reimbursement obligations, or may affect milestone payments or royalties for our products or any of our product candidates that are approved for commercialization in the future. Should any of these risks materialize, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Our strategic collaborations may require us to relinquish rights to and control over the development and commercialization of our product candidates or to make payments upon achievement of milestone events.

We have in the past and may in the future enter into agreements or engage in strategic collaborations in order to advance our business strategy. For example, in April 2020 we entered into a research collaboration and license agreement with Pfizer, Inc., or Pfizer, in connection with VLA15, our Lyme disease vaccine candidate. Pursuant to this agreement, Pfizer will lead late-stage development of the vaccine candidate and have sole control over its commercialization.

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In addition, we may in the future explore strategic collaborations, which may never materialize or may require that we relinquish rights to and control over the development and commercialization of our product candidates. At this time, we cannot predict what form such strategic collaborations or licenses might take in the future. If we do seek additional strategic collaborations, we are likely to face significant competition in seeking appropriate strategic collaborators, and strategic collaborations and licenses can be complicated and time-consuming to negotiate and document. We may not be able to negotiate strategic collaborations on acceptable terms, or at all. We are unable to predict when, if ever, we will enter into any additional strategic collaborations or licenses because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with establishing them. Any delays in entering into new strategic collaborations or licenses that we have deemed important for the development and commercialization of any of our product candidates could delay or limit those processes in certain geographies for certain indications, which would harm our business prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Our current and future collaborations and licenses could subject us to a number of risks, including the following:

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Furthermore, license agreements we enter into in the future may not provide exclusive rights to use intellectual property and technology in all relevant fields of use and in all territories in which we may wish to develop or commercialize our technology and products. As a result, we may not be able to prevent competitors from developing and commercializing competitive products in territories included in all of our licenses.

Even if we successfully commercialize any of our vaccine candidates, either alone or in collaboration with third-parties, we face uncertainty with respect to pricing, third-party reimbursement and healthcare reform, all of which could adversely affect any commercial success of our vaccine candidates.

Market acceptance and sales of any vaccine candidates that we commercialize, if approved, will depend in part on the extent to which reimbursement for these product and related treatments will be available from third-party payors, including government health administration authorities, managed care organizations and other private health insurers. Therefore, our ability to collect revenue from the commercial sale of our vaccines may depend on our ability, and that of any current or potential future collaboration partners or customers, to obtain adequate levels of approval, coverage and reimbursement for such products from third-party payors such as:

Third-party payors decide which therapies they will pay for and establish reimbursement levels. Travel vaccines are rarely reimbursed in Europe and, while no uniform policy for coverage and reimbursement exists in the United States, third-party payors often rely upon Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own coverage and reimbursement policies. However, decisions regarding the extent of coverage and amount of reimbursement to be provided for any product candidates that we develop will be made on a payor-by-payor basis. Therefore, one payor’s determination to provide coverage for a product does not assure that other payors will also provide coverage, and adequate reimbursement, for the product. Additionally, a third-party payor’s decision to provide coverage for a product does not imply that an adequate reimbursement rate will be approved. Each payor determines whether or not it will provide coverage for a product, what amount it will pay the manufacturer for the product and on what tier of its formulary it will be placed. The position on a payor’s list of covered drugs, biological, and vaccine products, or formulary, generally determines the co-payment that a patient will need to make to obtain the product and can strongly influence the adoption of such product by patients and physicians. Patients who are prescribed treatments for their conditions and providers prescribing such services generally rely on third-party payors to reimburse all or part of the associated healthcare costs. Patients are unlikely to use our products unless coverage is provided and reimbursement is adequate to cover a significant portion of the cost of our products. In addition, because our product candidates are physician-administered, separate reimbursement for the product itself may or may not be available. Instead, the administering physician may only be reimbursed for providing the treatment or procedure in which our product is used.

Third-party payors are increasingly challenging the prices charged for medical products and may deny coverage or offer inadequate levels of reimbursement if they determine that a prescribed product has not received appropriate clearances from the EMA, FDA, or other government regulators; is not used in accordance with cost-effective treatment methods as determined by the third-party payor; or is experimental, unnecessary or inappropriate. Prices could also be driven down by managed care organizations that control or significantly

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influence utilization of healthcare products. Outside the United States, pricing of competitive products by third-parties is the biggest driver of the prices of our products. In the United States, we may be significantly adversely affected if the federal pricing rules change requiring a greater discount than the current minimum of 24% compared to non-federal average manufacturer price for products listed on the federal supply schedule.

Third-party payors have attempted to control costs by limiting coverage and the amount of reimbursement for particular product. We cannot be sure that coverage and reimbursement will be available for any vaccine that we commercialize and, if reimbursement is available, what the level of reimbursement will be. Inadequate coverage and reimbursement may impact the demand for, or the price of, any product for which we obtain marketing approval. If coverage and adequate reimbursement are not available, or are available only at limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any vaccine candidates that we develop.

In both the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory proposals and initiatives to change the health care system in ways that could affect our ability to sell vaccines and could adversely affect the prices that we receive for our vaccine candidates, if approved. Some of these proposed and implemented reforms could result in reduced pharmaceutical pricing or reimbursement rates for medical products, the impact of such reform could nevertheless adversely affect our business strategy, operations and financial results.

For example, in the United States, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, or collectively the ACA, contains several cost containment measures that could adversely affect our future revenue, including, for example, increased drug rebates under Medicaid for brand name prescription drugs, extension of Medicaid rebates to Medicaid managed care organizations, and extension of so-called 340B discounted pricing on pharmaceuticals sold to certain healthcare providers. Additional provisions of various laws including the ACA, that may negatively affect our future revenue and prospects for profitability include the assessment of an annual fee based on our proportionate share of sales of brand name prescription drugs to certain government programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, as well as mandatory discounts on drugs (including vaccines) sold to certain Medicare Part D beneficiaries in the coverage gap (the so-called “donut hole”).

Other aspects of healthcare reform, such as expanded government enforcement authority and heightened standards that could increase compliance-related costs, could also affect our business in the United States or elsewhere. In addition, we face uncertainties because there are ongoing federal legislative and administrative efforts to repeal, substantially modify or invalidate some or all of the provisions of the ACA in the United States. We cannot predict the ultimate content, timing or effect of any healthcare reform legislation or the impact of potential legislation on us. If we are unable to obtain and maintain sufficient third-party coverage and adequate reimbursement, the commercial success of our vaccine products may be greatly hindered and our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Our failure to obtain marketing approval in jurisdictions other than the United States and the European Union would prevent our product candidates from being marketed in these other jurisdictions, and any approval we are granted for our product candidates in the United States and the European Union would not assure approval of product candidates in other jurisdictions.

In order to market and sell our product candidates in jurisdictions other than the United States and the European Union, we must obtain separate marketing approvals in such jurisdictions and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements. The approval process varies among countries and can involve additional testing aside from that which is required to obtain such approval in the United States and the European Union. The time required to obtain approval may differ from that required to obtain approval from the FDA or regulatory authorities in the European Union. The regulatory approval process outside the United States and the European Union generally includes all of the risks associated with obtaining FDA approval or approvals from regulatory authorities in the European Union. In addition, some countries outside the United States and the European Union

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require approval of the sales price of a product before it can be marketed. In many countries, separate procedures must be followed to obtain reimbursement and a product may not be approved for sale in the country until it is also approved for reimbursement. We may not obtain marketing, pricing or reimbursement approvals outside the United States and the European Union on a timely basis, if at all. Approval by the FDA or regulatory authorities in the European Union does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions, and approval by one regulatory authority outside the United States and the European Union does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions or by the FDA or regulatory authorities in the European Union. We may not be able to file for marketing approvals and may not receive necessary approvals to commercialize our products in any market. Marketing approvals in countries outside the United States and the European Union do not ensure pricing approvals in those countries or in any other countries where such approvals are required, and marketing approvals and pricing approvals do not ensure that reimbursement will be obtained.

Product liability lawsuits against us could divert our resources, cause us to incur substantial liabilities damage our reputation and could limit commercialization of any product candidate that we may develop as well as continued commercialization of our current products.

We face an inherent risk of product liability exposure related to the sale and use of our products and the testing of our product candidates in clinical trials. Side effects of, or manufacturing defects in, products that we develop could result in injury or even death. For example, our liability could be sought after by subjects participating in the clinical trials in the context of the development of the vaccine candidates tested and unexpected side effects resulting from the administration of these products. Once a product is approved for sale and commercialized, the likelihood of product liability lawsuits increases. Criminal or civil proceedings might be filed against us by subjects, regulatory authorities, biopharmaceutical companies and any other third party using or marketing our products. These actions could include claims resulting from acts by our partners, licensees and subcontractors, over which we have little or no control. These lawsuits may divert our management from pursuing our business strategy, result in withdrawal of clinical trial participants, result in decreased demand for our products and may be costly and time consuming to defend. In addition, if we are held liable in any of these lawsuits, we may incur substantial liabilities, may be forced to limit or forgo further development or commercialization of the affected products and may suffer damage to our reputation.

Although the clinical trial process is designed to identify and assess potential side effects, it is always possible that a drug, even after regulatory approval, may exhibit unforeseen side effects. If any of our product candidates were to cause adverse side effects during clinical trials or after approval of the product candidate, we may be exposed to substantial liabilities. Physicians and patients may not comply with any warnings that identify known potential adverse effects and patients who should not use our products or our product candidates.

To date, we have obtained product liability insurance with a coverage amount of €40 million per claim per year. Our product liability insurance will need to be adjusted in connection with the commercial sales of our products and our product candidates, and may be unavailable in meaningful amounts or at a reasonable cost. We do not currently have product liability insurance that would cover our vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2. Our insurance coverage may not be sufficient to cover any expenses or losses we may suffer. Moreover, insurance coverage is becoming increasingly expensive, and, in the future, we may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts to protect us against losses due to liability. On occasion, large judgments have been awarded in class action lawsuits based on drugs that had unanticipated side effects. The cost of any product liability litigation or other proceedings, even if resolved in our favor, could be substantial. A successful product liability claim, or series of claims, brought against us could cause our share price to decline and, if judgments exceed our insurance coverage, could decrease our cash and adversely affect our business.

In addition, product liability claims relating to our own or similar products may result in increases in insurance premiums or deductibles that may make insurance coverage more costly or prohibitively expensive. Additionally, insurance providers may refuse to provide coverage for a category of related products if one such product is removed from the market for safety reasons. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to maintain product

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liability insurance coverage for all of our products. If we are the subject of a successful product liability claim that exceeds the limits of any insurance coverage we obtain, we would incur substantial charges that would adversely affect our earnings and require the commitment of capital resources that might otherwise be available for the development and commercial launch of our product programs. Should any of these risks materialize, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to Regulatory Compliance

We may fail to obtain regulatory approval for our products on a timely basis or comply with our continuing regulatory obligations after approval is obtained.

Delays in obtaining regulatory approval can be extremely costly in terms of lost sales opportunities, loss of any potential marketing advantage of being early to market and increased clinical trial costs. The speed with which we begin and complete our pre-clinical studies, clinical trials and applications for marketing approval will depend on several factors, including the following:

We may not be permitted to continue or commence additional clinical trials. Regulatory agencies may require us or our collaborators to delay, restrict or discontinue clinical trials on various grounds, including a finding that the participants are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. We also face the risk that the results of our clinical trials may be inconsistent with the results obtained in pre-clinical studies or clinical trials of similar products or that the results obtained in later phases of clinical trials may be inconsistent with those obtained in earlier phases. A number of companies in the biotechnology and product development industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials, even after experiencing promising results in early animal and human testing.

In addition, we or our collaborators may be unable to submit applications to regulatory agencies within the time frame we currently expect. Once submitted, applications must be approved by various regulatory agencies before we or our collaborators can commercialize the product described in the application.

All statutes and regulations governing the conduct of clinical trials are subject to change in the future, which could affect the cost of such clinical trials. Any unanticipated costs or delays in our clinical trials could delay our ability to generate revenue and harm our financial condition and results of operations.

Accelerated regulatory review and approval procedures do not guarantee faster development, review or approval or that approval will ultimately be granted.

Regulatory agencies such as the EMA and FDA offer various options for accelerated review and approval of product candidates, such as the EMA’s PRIME designation for priority medicines and the FDA’s Fast Track

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designation and accelerated approval pathway. We seek to take advantage of these opportunities in order to facilitate the development, review, and approval processes for our product candidates.

VLA1553 (chikungunya) has received PRIME designation from the EMA. The EMA launched an initiative to facilitate development of product candidates in indications, often rare, for which few or no therapies currently exist. The PRIority MEdicines, or PRIME, scheme is intended to encourage drug development in areas of unmet medical need and provides accelerated assessment of products that may offer a major therapeutic advantage over existing treatments or benefit patients without treatment options, reviewed under the centralized procedure. PRIME designation does not change the standards for product approval or ensure that the product will receive marketing approval at all or within any particular timeframe. We may seek PRIME designation for other vaccine candidates in the future. If we do seek PRIME designation for our other vaccine candidates, we may not receive it, and even if we receive PRIME designation, we may not experience a faster development process, review or approval compared to conventional EMA procedures.

VLA15 (Lyme) and VLA1553 have both received Fast Track designation by the FDA. Fast Track designation may be available to help expedite the development or approval process for a drug that is intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening condition and that demonstrates the potential to address an unmet medical need for this condition. Fast Track designation does not change the standards for product approval or ensure that the product will receive marketing approval at all or within any particular timeframe. In addition, the FDA may withdraw Fast Track designation if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development program. Fast Track designation alone does not guarantee qualification for the FDA’s priority review procedures. Thus, although VLA15 and VLA1553 have both received Fast Track designation, there is no guarantee that this designation will result in a faster or more successful development or review process or in ultimate approval of either product candidate by the FDA. Additionally, we may also seek Fast Track designation for our other vaccine candidates. If we do seek Fast Track designation for our other vaccine candidates, we may not receive it, and even if we receive Fast Track designation, we may not experience a faster development process, review or approval compared to conventional FDA procedures.

Finally, we intend to seek approval for the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway for VLA1553 and may seek such approval for other vaccine candidates in the future. A product may be eligible for accelerated approval if it treats a serious or life-threatening condition, generally provides a meaningful advantage over available therapies, and demonstrates an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit. We have had discussions with the FDA about utilizing this pathway for our VLA1553 program, but there is no guarantee that the FDA will agree with the surrogate marker for protection that we are planning to utilize. As a condition of approval, the FDA may require that a sponsor of a product receiving accelerated approval perform adequate and well-controlled post-marketing clinical trials. These confirmatory trials must be completed with due diligence. In addition, the FDA currently requires as a condition for accelerated approval pre-approval of promotional materials, which could adversely impact the timing of the commercial launch of the product. Even if we do receive accelerated approval, we may not experience a faster development or regulatory review or approval process, and receiving accelerated approval does not provide assurance of ultimate full FDA approval.

If approved, our investigational products regulated as biologics may face competition from biosimilars approved through an abbreviated regulatory pathway.

The ACA includes a subtitle called the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or BPCIA, which created an abbreviated approval pathway for biologic products that are biosimilar to or interchangeable with an FDA-licensed reference biologic product. Under the BPCIA, an application for a biosimilar product may not be submitted to the FDA until four years following the date that the reference product was first licensed by the FDA. In addition, the approval of a biosimilar product may not be made effective by the FDA until 12 years from the date on which the reference product was first licensed. During this 12-year period of exclusivity, another company may still market a competing version of the reference product if the FDA approves a BLA for the competing product containing the sponsor’s own pre-clinical data and data from

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adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to demonstrate the safety, purity, and potency of the other company’s product. The law is complex and is still being interpreted and implemented by the FDA. As a result, its ultimate impact, implementation, and meaning are subject to uncertainty.

We believe that any of our product candidates approved as a biologic product under a BLA should qualify for the 12-year period of exclusivity. However, there is a risk that this exclusivity could be shortened due to congressional action or otherwise, or that the FDA will not consider our investigational medicines to be reference products for competing products, potentially creating the opportunity for generic competition sooner than anticipated. Other aspects of the BPCIA, some of which may impact the BPCIA exclusivity provisions, have also been the subject of recent litigation. Moreover, the extent to which a biosimilar, once licensed, will be substituted for any one of our reference products in a way that is similar to traditional generic substitution for non-biologic products is not yet clear, and will depend on a number of marketplace and regulatory factors that are still developing. If competitors are able to obtain marketing approval for biosimilars referencing our products, our products may become subject to competition from such biosimilars, with the attendant competitive pressure and consequences.

Our relationships with customers, healthcare providers, and third-party payors are subject, directly or indirectly, to healthcare fraud and abuse laws, false claims laws, health information privacy and security laws, and other healthcare laws and regulations. If we are unable to comply, or have not fully complied, with such laws, we could face substantial penalties.

Healthcare providers and third-party payors will play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. Our current and future arrangements with healthcare professionals, principal investigators, consultants, customers and third-party payors subject us to various fraud and abuse laws and other healthcare laws.

These laws may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we conduct our operations, including how we research, market, sell and distribute our product candidates, if approved. Restrictions under applicable U.S. federal, state and foreign healthcare laws and regulations include, but are not limited to, the following:

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Ensuring that our internal operations and business arrangements with third parties comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations is and will continue to be costly. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices, including our relationships with physicians and other healthcare providers, may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other governmental regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, imprisonment, exclusion from participating in U.S. government-funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, additional reporting requirements and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or similar agreement to resolve allegations of

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noncompliance with these laws, contractual damages, reputational harm and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations.

Even if resolved in our favor, litigation or other legal proceedings relating to healthcare laws and regulations may cause us to incur significant expenses and could distract our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for development, manufacturing, sales, marketing or distribution activities. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of litigation or other proceedings relating to applicable healthcare laws and regulations could have an adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace. Further, if the physicians or other providers or entities with whom we expect to do business are found not to be in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to significant civil, criminal or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from U.S. government-funded healthcare programs.

Healthcare legislative reform measures may have a negative impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

In the United States, the European Union and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been, and we expect there will continue to be, several legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could prevent or delay marketing approval of product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to profitably sell any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. In particular, there have been and continue to be a number of initiatives at the U.S. federal and state levels that seek to reduce healthcare costs and improve the quality of healthcare. For example, in March 2010, the ACA was passed, which substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private payors in the United States. Among the provisions of the ACA, those of greatest importance to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries include:

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There have been executive, judicial and congressional challenges to certain aspects of the ACA. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or Tax Act, included a provision that repealed, effective January 1, 2019, the tax-based shared responsibility payment imposed by the ACA on certain individuals who fail to maintain qualifying health coverage for all or part of a year, which is commonly referred to as the “individual mandate.” Additionally, the 2020 federal spending package permanently eliminated, effective January 1, 2020, the ACA’s mandated medical device tax and “Cadillac” tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage and, effective January 1, 2021, also eliminates the health insurer tax. On December 18, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld the District Court ruling that the individual mandate was unconstitutional and remanded the case back to the District Court to determine whether the remaining provisions of the ACA are invalid as well. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing this case but it is unclear when a decision will be made. Although the Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the constitutionality of the ACA, on January 28, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order to initiate a special enrollment period from February 15, 2021 through May 15, 2021 for purposes of obtaining health insurance coverage through the ACA marketplace. The executive order also instructs certain governmental agencies to review and reconsider their existing policies and rules that limit access to healthcare, including among others, reexamining Medicaid demonstration projects and waiver programs that include work requirements, and policies that create unnecessary barriers to obtaining access to health insurance coverage through Medicaid or the ACA. Further, on February 10, 2021, the Biden Administration withdrew the federal government’s support for overturning the ACA. It is also unclear how the Supreme Court ruling, other such litigation and the healthcare reform measures of the Biden administration will impact the ACA.

Other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the ACA was enacted. These changes include aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year pursuant to the Budget Control Act of 2011, which began in 2013 and through subsequent legislation will remain in effect through 2030. However, COVID-19 relief support legislation suspended the 2% Medicare sequester from May 1, 2020 through March 31, 2021. Legislation is currently pending to extend the suspension through December 31, 2021. In addition, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, among other things, further reduced Medicare payments to several types of providers, including hospitals and cancer treatment centers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years.

Additional changes that may affect our business include the expansion of new programs such as Medicare payment for performance initiatives for physicians under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, which established a quality payment program, also referred to as the Quality Payment Program. The Quality Payment Program has two tracks, one known as the merit based incentive payment system for providers in the fee-for service Medicare program, and the advanced alternative payment model for providers in specific care models, such as accountable care organizations. In November 2019, CMS issued a final rule finalizing the changes to the Quality Payment Program. At this time, the full impact to overall physician reimbursement as a result of the introduction of the Medicare Quality Payment Program remains unclear.

Further, in the United States there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug and biological product pricing, reduce the cost of prescription drugs and biological products under government payor programs and review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs. At the federal level, the Trump administration used several means to propose or implement drug pricing reform, including through federal budget proposals, executive orders and policy initiatives. For example, on July 24, 2020 and September 13, 2020, the Trump administration announced several executive orders related to prescription drug pricing that seek to implement several of the administration’s proposals. The FDA also released a final rule on September 24, 2020 providing guidance for states to build and submit importation plans for drugs from Canada. Further, on November 20, 2020, HHS finalized a regulation removing safe harbor protection for

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price reductions from pharmaceutical manufacturers to plan sponsors under Medicare Part D, either directly or through pharmacy benefit managers, unless the price reduction is required by law. The implementation of the rule has been delayed by the Biden administration from January 1, 2022 to January 1, 2023 in response to ongoing litigation. The rule also creates a new safe harbor for price reductions reflected at the point-of-sale, as well as a safe harbor for certain fixed fee arrangements between pharmacy benefit managers and manufacturers, the implementation of which have also been delayed until January 1, 2023. Further, in November 2020, CMS issued an interim final rule implementing the Most Favored Nation, or MFN, Model under which Medicare Part B reimbursement rates will be calculated for certain drugs and biologicals based on the lowest price drug manufacturers receive in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries with a similar gross domestic product per capita. The MFN Model regulations mandate participation by identified Part B providers and will apply in all U.S. states and territories for a seven-year period beginning January 1, 2021, and ending December 31, 2027. The Interim Final Rule has not been finalized and is subject to revision and challenge. For example, on December 28, 2020, the United States District Court in Northern California issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the implementation of this interim final rule. The likelihood of implementation of the Trump administration reform initiatives is uncertain, particularly in light of the new U.S. presidential administration.

At the state level, legislatures have increasingly passed legislation and implemented regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. In addition, regional healthcare authorities and individual hospitals are increasingly using bidding procedures to determine which drugs, biological products and suppliers will be included in their healthcare programs. Furthermore, there has been increased interest by third party payors and governmental authorities in reference pricing systems and publication of discounts and list prices.

We expect that additional U.S. federal healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that the U.S. federal government will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand for our current or any future product candidates or additional pricing pressures. For example, it is possible that additional governmental action is taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action in the United States or any other jurisdiction. If we or any third parties we may engage are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing or new requirements or policies, or if we or such third parties are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, our current or any future product candidates we may develop may lose any regulatory approval that may have been obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability.

In some countries, the proposed pricing for a biopharmaceutical product must be approved before it may be lawfully marketed. In addition, in certain foreign markets, the pricing of biopharmaceutical product is subject to government control and reimbursement may in some cases be unavailable. The requirements governing drug pricing vary widely from country to country. For example, the European Union provides options for its member states to restrict the range of medicinal products for which their national health insurance systems provide reimbursement and to control the prices of medicinal products for human use. An EU member state may approve a specific price for the medicinal product, it may refuse to reimburse a product at the price set by the manufacturer or it may instead adopt a system of direct or indirect controls on the profitability of the company placing the medicinal product on the market. There can be no assurance that any country that has price controls or reimbursement limitations for biopharmaceutical products will allow favorable reimbursement and pricing arrangements for any of our products. Historically, biopharmaceutical products launched in the European Union do not follow price structures of the United States and generally tend to have significantly lower prices.

We expect that these and other healthcare reform measures that may be adopted in the future may result in more rigorous coverage criteria and in additional downward pressure on the price that we receive for any approved product, which could have an adverse effect on demand for our product candidates. We cannot predict the

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likelihood, nature, or extent of health reform initiatives that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, particularly as a result of the new presidential administration. Any reduction in reimbursement from

Medicare or other government programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors. The implementation of cost containment measures or other healthcare reforms may prevent us from being able to generate revenue, attain profitability or commercialize our products.

We are subject to anti-corruption laws, as well as export control laws, customs laws, sanctions laws and other laws governing our operations. If we fail to comply with these laws, we could be subject to civil or criminal penalties, other remedial measures and legal expenses, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We are subject to other laws and regulations governing our international operations, including regulations administered by the governments of the United States, and authorities in the European Union and the United Kingdom, including applicable export control regulations, economic sanctions on countries and persons, customs requirements and currency exchange regulations, collectively referred to as the trade control laws.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, prohibits any U.S. individual or business from paying, offering, authorizing payment or offering of anything of value, directly or indirectly, to any foreign official, political party or candidate for the purpose of influencing any act or decision of the foreign entity in order to assist the individual or business in obtaining or retaining business. The FCPA also obligates companies whose securities are listed in the United States to comply with certain accounting provisions requiring the company to maintain books and records that accurately and fairly reflect all transactions of the corporation, including international subsidiaries, and to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls for international operations.

Compliance with the FCPA is expensive and difficult, particularly in countries in which corruption is a recognized problem. In addition, the FCPA presents particular challenges in the biopharmaceutical industry, because, in many countries, hospitals are operated by the government, and doctors and other hospital employees are considered foreign officials. Certain payments to hospitals in connection with clinical trials and other work have been deemed to be improper payments to government officials and have led to FCPA enforcement actions.

French anti-corruption laws also prohibit acts of bribery and influence peddling:

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There is no assurance that we will be effective in ensuring our compliance with all applicable anti-corruption laws, including the FCPA, the French anti-corruption laws or other legal requirements, including trade control laws. If we are not in compliance with the FCPA, the French anti-corruption laws and other anti-corruption laws or trade control laws, we may be subject to criminal and civil penalties, disgorgement and other sanctions and remedial measures, and legal expenses, which could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and liquidity. Likewise, any investigation of any potential violations of the FCPA, the French anti-corruption laws, other anti-corruption laws or trade control laws by U.S. or other authorities could also have an adverse impact on our reputation, our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for our product candidates and technology, or if the scope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad or robust, our competitors could develop and commercialize products and technology similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and technology may be adversely affected.

Our success depends, in large part, on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in the United States and other countries with respect to our product candidates and our technology. We and our licensors have sought, and intend to seek, to protect our proprietary position by filing patent applications in Europe, the United States and other jurisdictions related to our product candidates and our technology that are important to our business.

The patent position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions and has, in recent years, been the subject of much litigation. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. Our pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued which protect our technology or product candidates or which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive technologies and product candidates. Because patent applications in the United States and most other countries are confidential for a period of time after filing, and some remain so until issued, we cannot be certain that we or our licensors were the first to file a patent application relating to any particular aspect of a product candidate. For example, many patent applications in the SARS-CoV-2 field are still confidential and thus we cannot be sure that we or our licensors were the first to file a patent application relating to any particular aspect of the VLA2001 candidate. Foreign patents may be subject also to opposition or comparable proceedings in the corresponding foreign patent office.

The patent prosecution process is expensive, time-consuming and complex, and we may not be able to file, prosecute, maintain, enforce or license all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection.

We or our licensors have not pursued or maintained, and may not pursue or maintain in the future, patent protection for our product candidates in every country or territory in which we may sell our products, if approved. In addition, the laws of some countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as European laws and federal and state laws in the United States. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing our patents in all countries outside Europe or the United States, or from selling or importing products that infringe our patents in and into Europe or the United States or other jurisdictions.

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Moreover, the coverage claimed in a patent application can be significantly reduced before the patent is issued and its scope can be reinterpreted after issuance. Even if the patent applications we license or own do issue as patents, they may not issue in a form that will provide us with any meaningful protection, prevent competitors or other third parties from competing with us or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Our competitors or other third parties may be able to circumvent our patents by developing similar or alternative products in a non-infringing manner.

The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, and our patents may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in Europe, the United States and other jurisdictions. Such challenges may result in loss of exclusivity or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our technology and product candidates. For example, two of our patents have been limited in scope in opposition proceedings in Europe. One of these opposed patents relates to vaccine compositions comprising an aluminum component with low heavy metal and copper impurities, and covers IXIARO. The other opposed patent covers VLA84. These decisions are under appeal, and the patents could ultimately be revoked. We would not expect that the potential revocation of the opposed patent to have a significant impact on further commercialization of IXIARO, because other patents protecting IXIARO exist and have not been opposed. Revocation of the opposed patent relating to VLA84 could limit our ability to stop others from commercializing a similar product to VLA84 and could dissuade third parties from collaborating with us to develop VLA84. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our intellectual property may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by the patents and patent applications we hold with respect to our product candidates is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to develop, and threaten our ability to commercialize, our product candidates.

Furthermore, our owned and in-licensed patents may be subject to a reservation of rights by one or more third parties. As a result, such third parties, including governments and non-for-profit organizations, may have certain rights, including “march-in” rights, to such patent rights and technology. When new technologies are developed with such partners, they generally obtain certain rights in any resulting patents, including a nonexclusive license authorizing the party to use the invention for noncommercial purposes. These rights may permit the funding partner to disclose our confidential information to third parties and to exercise “march-in” rights to use or allow third parties to use our licensed technology. The funding partner can exercise its “march-in” rights if it determines that action is necessary because we fail to achieve practical application of the government-funded technology, because action is necessary to alleviate health or safety needs, to meet requirements of federal regulations, or to give preference to U.S. or other country industry. In addition, our rights in such inventions may be subject to certain requirements to manufacture products embodying such inventions in the United States or other countries. Any exercise by the funding partners of such rights could harm our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Obtaining and maintaining our patent rights depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by government patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for noncompliance with these requirements.

The USPTO and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. In addition, periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other government fees on patents and/or patent applications will have to be paid to the USPTO and various government patent agencies outside the United States over the lifetime of our owned and licensed patents and/or applications and any patent rights we may own or license in the future. We rely on our service providers or our licensors to pay these fees. We employ reputable law firms and other professionals to help us comply, and we are also dependent on our licensors to take the necessary action to comply with these requirements with respect to our licensed intellectual property. Noncompliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application include, but are not limited to, failure to respond to official actions within

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prescribed time limits, nonpayment of fees and failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents. If we or our licensors fail to maintain the patents and patent applications covering our product candidates or technologies, we may not be able to use such patents and patent applications or stop a competitor from marketing products that are the same as or similar to our product candidates, which would have an adverse effect on our business. In many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. There are situations, however, in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, potential competitors might be able to enter the market and this circumstance could harm our business.

In addition, if we fail to apply for applicable patent term extensions or adjustments, we will have a more limited time during which we can enforce our granted patent rights. In addition, if we are responsible for patent prosecution and maintenance of patent rights in-licensed to us, any of the foregoing could expose us to liability to the applicable patent owner.

Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our products and product candidates for an adequate amount of time.

Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after its first effective filing date. Although various extensions may be available, the life of a patent and the protection it affords is limited. In addition, although upon issuance in the United States a patent’s life can be increased based on certain delays caused by the USPTO, this increase can be reduced or eliminated based on certain delays caused by the patent applicant during patent prosecution. If we do not have sufficient patent life to protect our products, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of our product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. We expect to seek extensions of patent terms in the United States and, if available, in other countries where we have or will obtain patent rights. In the United States, the Hatch-Waxman Act, and similar legislation in the European Union, permits a patent term extension of up to five years beyond the normal expiration of the patent, provided that the patent is not enforceable in the U.S. for more than 14 years from the date of drug approval, which is limited to the approved indication (or any additional indications approved during the period of extension). Furthermore, in the United States, only one patent per approved product can be extended and only those claims covering the approved product, a method for using it or a method for manufacturing it may be extended. In Europe, supplementary protection certificates, or SPCs, provide protection for the active ingredient of a patented and authorized medicinal product, which may extend for up to five years beyond the normal patent expiry date (providing together with the patent up to 15 years exclusivity from the first EU marketing authorization). In some cases an additional six months of SPC protection may be obtained by performing pediatric trials of the product. The protection afforded by an SPC extends only to the active ingredient of the authorized medicinal product, within the scope of the granted base patent. However, the applicable authorities may not agree with our assessment of whether such extensions are available, and may refuse to grant extensions to our patents, or may grant more limited extensions than we request. If this occurs, our competitors may be able to take advantage of our investment in development and clinical trials by referencing our clinical and pre-clinical data and launch their product earlier than might otherwise be the case.

Third parties may initiate legal proceedings alleging that we are infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating their intellectual property rights, the outcome of which would be uncertain and could have a negative impact on the success of our business.

Our commercial success depends, in part, upon our ability and the ability of others with whom we may collaborate to develop, manufacture, market and sell our current and any future product candidates and use our proprietary technologies without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the proprietary rights and intellectual property of third parties. The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are characterized by

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extensive and complex litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications, which are owned by third parties, exist in the fields in which we are developing our product candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk may increase that our product candidates may give rise to claims of infringement of the patent rights of others. We may in the future become party to, or be threatened with, adversarial proceedings or litigation regarding intellectual property rights with respect to our current and any future product candidates and technology, including interference proceedings, post grant review and inter partes review before the USPTO. Foreign patents may be subject also to opposition or comparable proceedings in the corresponding foreign patent office. Third parties may assert infringement claims against us based on existing patents or patents that may be granted in the future, regardless of their merit. There is a risk that third parties may choose to engage in litigation with us to enforce or to otherwise assert their patent rights against us. Even if we believe such claims are without merit, a court of competent jurisdiction could hold that these third-party patents are valid, enforceable and infringed, which could have a negative impact on our ability to commercialize our current and any future product candidates. In order to successfully challenge the validity of any such U.S. patent in federal court, we would need to overcome a presumption of validity. As this is a high burden and requires us to present clear and convincing evidence as to the invalidity of any such U.S. patent claim, there is no assurance that a court of competent jurisdiction would invalidate the claims of any such U.S. patent. Moreover, given the vast number of patents in our field of technology, we cannot be certain that we do not infringe existing patents or that we will not infringe patents that may be granted in the future. While we have in the past and may in the future decide to initiate proceedings to challenge the validity of these or other patents in the future, we may be unsuccessful, and courts or patent offices in Europe, the United States and other jurisdictions could uphold the validity of any such patent. Even if we are successful in obtaining a first-instance judgement from a court or patent office that such patents are invalid, such judgements may be subject to appeal procedures which suspend revocation of the patent until a final appeal judgment is reached. This may result in many years of uncertainty and could ultimately lead to reversal of the original judgment and the patent being upheld. Furthermore, because patent applications can take many years to issue and are typically confidential for 18 months or more after filing, and because pending patent claims can be revised before issuance, there may be applications now pending which may later result in issued patents that may be infringed by the manufacture, use or sale of our product candidates. Regardless of when filed, we may fail to identify relevant third-party patents or patent applications, or we may incorrectly conclude that a third-party patent is invalid or not infringed by our product candidates or activities. If a patent holder believes that our product candidate or technology platform infringes its patent, the patent holder may sue us even if we have received patent protection for our technology. Moreover, we may face patent infringement claims from nonpracticing entities that have no relevant product revenue and against whom our own patent portfolio may thus have no deterrent effect. If a patent infringement suit were threatened or brought against us, we could be forced to stop or delay research, development, manufacturing or sales of the product or product candidate that is the subject of the actual or threatened suit.

If we are found to infringe a third party’s valid and enforceable intellectual property rights, we could be required to obtain a license from such third party to continue developing, manufacturing and marketing our product candidate(s) and technology. Under any such license, we would most likely be required to pay various types of fees, milestones, royalties or other amounts. Moreover, we may not be able to obtain any required license on commercially reasonable terms or at all, and if such an instance arises, our ability to commercialize our product candidates may be impaired or delayed, which could in turn significantly harm our business. Parties making claims against us may also seek and obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, which could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize our product candidates.

The licensing or acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and more established companies may also pursue strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive or necessary. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, capital resources and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. We also may be unable to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights on terms that would allow us to make an

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appropriate return on our investment or at all. If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property rights or maintain the existing intellectual property rights we have, we may have to abandon development of the relevant program or product candidate, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Furthermore, even if we were able to obtain a license, it could be nonexclusive, thereby giving our competitors and other third parties access to the same technologies licensed to us, and it could require us to make substantial licensing and royalty payments. We could be forced, including by court order, to cease developing, manufacturing and commercializing the infringing technology or product candidate. We may also have to redesign our products, which may not be commercially or technically feasible or require substantial time and expense. In addition, we could be found liable for monetary damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees, if we are found to have willfully infringed a patent or other intellectual property right. We may be required to indemnify collaborators or contractors against such claims. A finding of infringement could prevent us from manufacturing and commercializing our current or any future product candidates or force us to cease some or all of our business operations, which could harm our business. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation can be expensive and time-consuming and would divert management’s attention from our core business. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. There could also be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have an adverse effect on the price of our common stock.

Claims that we have misappropriated the confidential information or trade secrets of third parties could have a similar negative impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We may be subject to claims asserting that our employees, consultants or advisors have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their current or former employers or claims asserting ownership of what we regard as our own intellectual property.

Certain of our employees, consultants or advisors are currently, or were previously, employed at universities or other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees, consultants and advisors do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that these individuals or we have used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any such individual’s current or former employer. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.

In addition, we may in the future be subject to claims by our former employees or consultants asserting an ownership right in our patents or patent applications, as a result of the work they performed on our behalf. For example, we may have inventorship disputes arise from conflicting obligations of consultants or others who are involved in developing our product candidates. Although it is our policy to require our employees and contractors who may be involved in the conception or development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who, in fact, conceives or develops intellectual property that we regard as our own, and we cannot be certain that our agreements with such parties will be upheld in the face of a potential challenge or that they will not be breached, for which we may not have an adequate remedy. The assignment of intellectual property rights may not be self-executing or the assignment agreements may be breached, and we may be forced to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims that they may bring against us, to determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual property.

In some countries, the national law may stipulate that certain inventions made by an employee belong to the employer or employee and may restrict the ability of employment or other contracts to define which inventions

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belong ab initio to the employer. Thus in some countries employees could claim ownership of inventions by operation of national law and assignments may not be enforceable. Inventors may also assert additional rights relating to their inventive contribution, without necessarily claiming ownership. For instance, in some countries inventors are entitled to adequate remuneration or other benefit from an invention, even if the invention belongs by law to their employer. In some cases employee-inventors may also be entitled to pursue patent applications that the employer decides to abandon. Inventors claiming such rights may require us to pay additional compensation or might bring claims against us using the patent applications they acquire.

We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents, the patents of our licensors or our other intellectual property rights, which could be expensive, time-consuming and unsuccessful.

Competitors may infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate our patents, the patents of our licensors or our other intellectual property rights. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file legal claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming and are likely to divert significant resources from our core business, including distracting our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities.

In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent of ours or our licensors is not valid or is unenforceable, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology in question. An adverse result in any litigation or defense proceedings could put one or more of our owned or licensed patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and could put our owned or licensed patent applications at risk of not issuing. The initiation of a claim against a third party might also cause the third party to bring counterclaims against us, such as claims asserting that our patent rights are invalid or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness, non-enablement or lack of statutory subject matter. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant material information from the USPTO or similar foreign authorities, or made a materially misleading statement, during prosecution. Third parties may also raise similar validity claims before the USPTO in post-grant proceedings such as ex parte reexaminations, inter partes review, post-grant review, or oppositions or similar proceedings outside the United States, in parallel with litigation or even outside the context of litigation. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. We cannot be certain that there is or will be no invalidating prior art, of which we and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. For the patents and patent applications that we have licensed, we may have limited or no right to participate in the defense of any licensed patents against challenge by a third party. If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of any future patent protection on our current or future product candidates. Such a loss of patent protection could harm our business.

We may not be able to prevent, alone or with our licensors, misappropriation of our intellectual property rights, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect those rights as fully as in the United States. Our business could be harmed if in litigation the prevailing party does not offer us a license, or if the license offered as a result is not on commercially reasonable terms. Any litigation or other proceedings to enforce our intellectual property rights may fail and, even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees.

We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to adequately conduct such litigation or proceedings. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources and more mature and developed intellectual property portfolios. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating or from successfully challenging our intellectual property rights. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have an adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace.

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Developments in patent law could have a negative impact on our business.

Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents. For example, from time to time, the U.S. Congress, the USPTO or similar foreign authorities may change the standards of patentability and any such changes could have a negative impact on our business. In addition, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or the America Invents Act, which was signed into law in September 2011, includes a number of significant changes to U.S. patent law. These changes include a transition from a “first-to-invent” system to a “first-to-file” system, changes to the way issued patents are challenged and changes to the way patent applications are disputed during the examination process such as allowing third-party submission of prior art to the USPTO during patent prosecution. These changes may favor larger and more established companies that have greater resources to devote to patent application filing and prosecution. Under a first-to-file system, assuming that other requirements for patentability are met, the first inventor to file a patent application generally will be entitled to the patent on an invention regardless of whether another inventor made the invention earlier. The USPTO has developed new regulations and procedures to govern the full implementation of the America Invents Act, and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the America Invents Act, and, in particular, the first-to-file provisions, became effective in March 2013. Substantive changes to patent law associated with the America Invents Act, or any subsequent U.S. legislation regarding patents, may affect our ability to obtain patents, and if obtained, to enforce or defend them. Accordingly, it is not clear what, if any, impact the America Invents Act will have on the cost of prosecuting our U.S. patent applications, our ability to obtain U.S. patents based on our discoveries and our ability to enforce or defend any patents that may issue from our patent applications, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, changes to or different interpretations of patent laws in the United States and other countries may permit others to use our or our partners’ discoveries or to develop and commercialize our technology and product candidates without providing any compensation to us, or may limit the number of patents or claims we can obtain. The patent positions of companies in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical market are particularly uncertain. Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have narrowed the scope of U.S. patent protection available in certain circumstances and weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In Europe, the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO has recently indicated that it is prepared to apply a “dynamic” interpretation of certain patent law provisions in view of political developments, and thus could reverse previously pro-patentee positions relating to biotechnological and pharmaceutical inventions. This combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the validity and enforceability of patents, once obtained. Depending on future actions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts, and the USPTO, and the EPO, as well as similar bodies in other countries, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that could have a material adverse effect on our existing patent portfolio and our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property in the future, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world, which could negatively impact our business.

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents covering our current and any future product candidates and technology platforms in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we or our licensors have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we may obtain patent protection but where patent enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our products in jurisdictions where we do not have any issued or licensed patents, and any future patent claims or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from so competing.

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Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biotechnology products, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our intellectual property and proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly, could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing, and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate, and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.

Many countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties. For example, such a license may be issued in circumstances where demand for a product cannot be met by the patent holder in cases of a public health emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, the patent owner may have limited remedies, which could materially diminish the value of such patent. If we or any of our licensors is forced to grant a license to third parties with respect to any patents relevant to our business, our competitive position may be impaired, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.

If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business and competitive position would be harmed.

In addition to seeking patent and trademark protection for our product candidates, we also rely on trade secrets, including unpatented know-how, technology and other proprietary information, to maintain our competitive position. Because we rely on third parties to help us discover, develop and manufacture our current and any future product candidates, or if we collaborate with third parties for the development, manufacturing or commercialization of our current or any future product candidates, we must, at times, share trade secrets with them. We may also conduct joint research and development programs that may require us to share trade secrets under the terms of our research and development partnerships or similar agreements.

We seek to protect our proprietary technology in part by entering into confidentiality agreements and, if applicable, material transfer agreements, consulting agreements or other similar agreements with our advisors, employees, third-party contractors and consultants prior to beginning research or disclosing proprietary information. These agreements typically limit the rights of these parties to use or disclose our confidential information, including our trade secrets. We also enter into invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees, advisors and consultants. Despite our efforts to protect our trade secrets, the need to share trade secrets and other confidential information increases the risk that such trade secrets become known by our competitors, are inadvertently incorporated into the technology of others or are disclosed or used in violation of these agreements. Moreover, we cannot guarantee that we have entered into such agreements with each party that may have or have had access to our confidential information or proprietary technology and processes. Monitoring unauthorized uses and disclosures is difficult, and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to protect our proprietary technologies will be effective. If any of the collaborators, scientific advisors, employees, contractors and consultants who are parties to these agreements breaches or violates the terms of any of these agreements, we may not have adequate remedies for any such breach or violation, and we could lose our trade secrets as a result. Moreover, if confidential information that is licensed or disclosed to us by our partners, collaborators or others is inadvertently disclosed or subject to a breach or violation, we may be exposed to liability to the owner of that confidential information. Enforcing a claim that a third-party illegally or unlawfully obtained and is using our trade secrets, like patent litigation, is expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, courts outside the United States are sometimes less willing to protect trade secrets.

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In addition, our competitors may independently develop knowledge, methods and know-how equivalent to our trade secrets. Competitors could purchase our products and replicate some or all of the competitive advantages we derive from our development efforts for technologies on which we do not have patent protection. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent them, or those to whom they communicate it, from using that technology or information to compete with us. Given that our proprietary position is based, in part, on our know-how and trade secrets, a competitor’s discovery of our trade secrets or other unauthorized use or disclosure could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We also face the risk of potential unauthorized disclosure or misappropriation of our intellectual property by our collaborators, which may reduce our trade secret protection and allow our potential competitors to access and exploit our proprietary technology. Our collaborators also may use our proprietary information and intellectual property in such a way as to invite litigation or other intellectual property-related proceedings that could jeopardize our proprietary information or invalidate our intellectual property.

We also seek to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our data and other confidential information by maintaining physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our information technology systems. Security measures may be breached, and detecting the disclosure or misappropriation of confidential information and enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated confidential information is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. Further, we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for any breach. In addition, our confidential information may otherwise become known or be independently discovered by competitors, in which case we would have no right to prevent them, or those to whom they communicate it, from using that technology or information to compete with us.

Any trademarks we have and we may obtain may be infringed or successfully challenged, resulting in harm to our business.

We rely on trademarks as one means to distinguish any of our product candidates that are approved for marketing from the products of our competitors. Third parties may oppose our trademark applications or otherwise challenge our use of the trademarks. In the event that our trademarks are successfully challenged, we could be forced to rebrand our products, which could result in loss of brand recognition and could require us to devote resources to advertising and marketing new brands. Our competitors may infringe our trademarks, and we may not have adequate resources to enforce our trademarks. We entered into a co-existence agreement with respect to the VALNEVA trademark. The agreement places restrictions on how we can use this mark and how we can seek trademark protection for this mark. See “Business—Intellectual Property—Trademarks” for a discussion of the co-existence agreement.

In addition, any proprietary name we propose to use with our current or any other product candidate in the United States must be approved by the FDA, regardless of whether we have registered it, or applied to register it, as a trademark. The FDA typically conducts a review of proposed product names, including an evaluation of the potential for confusion with other product names. If the FDA objects to any of our proposed proprietary product names, we may be required to expend significant additional resources in an effort to identify a suitable proprietary product name that would qualify under applicable trademark laws, not infringe the existing rights of third parties and be acceptable to the FDA.

Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats to our business.

The degree of future protection afforded by our intellectual property rights is uncertain because intellectual property rights have limitations and may not adequately protect our business. The following examples are illustrative:

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If we breach our license agreements or any of the other agreements under which we acquired, or will acquire, the intellectual property rights to our product candidates, we could lose the ability to continue the development and commercialization of the related product candidates.

We have in-licensing agreements relating to certain of our products and product candidates, including with TechLab for VLA84 (Clostridium difficile), Dynavax for the adjuvant used in VLA2001 (SARS-CoV-2) and VaccGen for IXIARO.

If we fail to meet our obligations under these agreements, our licensors may have the right to terminate our licenses. If any of our license agreements are terminated, and we lose our intellectual property rights under such agreements, this may result in a complete termination of our product development and any commercialization efforts for the product candidates which we are developing under such agreements. While we would expect to exercise all rights and remedies available to us, including seeking to cure any breach by us, and otherwise seek to preserve our rights under such agreements, we may not be able to do so in a timely manner, at an acceptable cost or at all.

Disputes may also arise between us and our licensors regarding intellectual property subject to a license agreement, including those related to:

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Risks Related to our Reliance on Third Parties

We depend upon our existing collaboration partner, Pfizer, and other third parties to advance our business and may in the future depend on additional third parties. If we are unable to maintain such existing agreements or enter into additional arrangements, our business could be adversely affected.

We have entered into, and in the future may seek to enter into additional, collaborations, partnerships, strategic alliances and joint ventures, as well as licensing, distribution or manufacturing arrangements with third parties that we believe will complement or augment our development and commercialization efforts. Any of these relationships may require us to incur non-recurring and other charges, increase our near and long-term expenditures, issue securities that dilute our existing shareholders or disrupt our management and business.

In addition, we face significant competition in seeking appropriate strategic partners and the negotiation process is time-consuming and complex. We may not be successful in our efforts to establish a collaboration, strategic partnership or other alternative arrangements for our products or product candidates.

Further, collaborations and partnerships involving our products or product candidates are subject to numerous risks, which may include the following:

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Our strategic partnership with Pfizer to develop and commercialize our Lyme disease vaccine is of critical importance to our business. In accordance with our agreement with Pfizer, we are obligated to provide 30% of the development costs for our Lyme disease vaccine. If we cannot maintain enough cash to comply with this obligation, development and commercialization of our Lyme disease vaccine could be significantly delayed. Additionally, Pfizer could terminate our existing agreement for a number of reasons, as discussed further under “Business—Pfizer License Agreement.” If our partnership with Pfizer fails or is terminated for any reason, we may be unable to find another partner and may not have sufficient financial resources to complete Phase 3 development of our Lyme disease vaccine without a partner.

If we enter into collaborations, partnerships, strategic alliances and joint ventures, as well as licensing, distribution or manufacturing arrangements with third parties, we may not be able to realize the benefit of such transactions if we are unable to successfully integrate them with our business, which could delay our timelines or otherwise adversely affect our business. We also cannot be certain that, following a strategic transaction or license, we will achieve the synergies that justify such transaction.

Should any of these risks materialize, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

We are dependent on single source suppliers for some of the components and materials used in our products.

In certain cases, we rely on single suppliers for all of our requirements for some of our materials or components. In most cases we do not have long term contracts with these suppliers, and even in the cases where we do the contracts include significant qualifications that would make it extremely difficult for us to force the supplier to provide us with their services, materials or components should they choose not to do so. We are therefore subject to the risk that these third-party suppliers will not be able or willing to continue to provide us with materials and components that meet our specifications, quality standards and delivery schedules. Factors that could impact our suppliers’ willingness and ability to continue to provide us with the required materials and components include disruption at or affecting our suppliers’ facilities, such as work stoppages or natural disasters, adverse weather or other conditions that affect their supply, the financial condition of our suppliers and deterioration in our relationships with these suppliers. In addition, we cannot be sure that we will be able to obtain these materials and components on satisfactory terms. Any increase in material and component costs could reduce our sales and harm our gross margins. In addition, any loss of a material supplier may permanently cause a change in one or more of our products that may not be accepted by our customers or cause us to eliminate that product altogether.

For example, we rely on a single source supplier for fetal bovine serum, a critical and scarce raw material which is only available from our supplier and is used in the manufacturing of IXIARO. We also rely on a single source supplier for the adjuvant contained in our COVID-19 vaccine candidate and other vaccine candidates. A loss of our fetal bovine serum supplier or any shortages of this material could adversely affect our ability to produce IXIARO and significantly raise our cost of producing it. A loss of our adjuvant supplier or any shortages of this could adversely affect our ability to develop our COVID-19 and other vaccine candidates.

We have not qualified secondary sources for all materials or components that we source through a single supplier and we cannot assure investors that the qualification of a secondary supplier will prevent future supply issues. Disruption in the supply of materials or components would impair our ability to sell our products and meet customer demand, and also could delay the launch of new products, any of which could harm our business and results of operations. If we were to have to change suppliers, the new supplier may not be able to provide us materials or components in a timely manner and in adequate quantities that are consistent with our quality standards and on satisfactory pricing terms. In addition, alternative sources of supply may not be available for materials that are scarce or components for which there are a limited number of suppliers.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been public concern over the availability and accessibility of critical medical products. If we experience shortages in the supply of our marketed products, our results could be materially impacted.

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The marketing and distribution of our products and the late-stage development of our product candidates may depend on our ability to establish and maintain collaborations with biopharmaceutical companies.

In order to develop and market some of our products and product candidates, we rely on collaboration, research and license agreements with biopharmaceutical companies to assist us in the marketing and distribution of our products and development of product candidates and the financing of their development. For example, we entered into an agreement with Bavarian Nordic to commercialize our products in Germany and Switzerland. As we continue to commercialize our products and identify new product candidates, we will determine the appropriate strategy for development and marketing, which may result in the need to establish additional collaborations with major biopharmaceutical companies. We may also enter into agreements with institutions and universities to participate in our other research programs and to share intellectual property rights.

We may fail to maintain or find collaboration partners and to sign new agreements for our other product candidates and programs. The competition for partners is intense, and the negotiation process is time-consuming and complex. Any new collaboration may be on terms that are not optimal for us, and we may not be able to maintain any new collaboration if, for example, development or approval of a product candidate is delayed, sales of an approved product candidate do not meet expectations or the collaborator terminates the collaboration. Any such collaboration, or other strategic transaction, may require us to incur non-recurring or other charges, increase our near- and long-term expenditures and pose significant integration or implementation challenges or disrupt our management or business. These transactions would entail numerous operational and financial risks, including exposure to unknown liabilities, disruption of our business and diversion of our management’s time and attention in order to manage a collaboration or develop acquired products, product candidates or technologies, incurrence of substantial debt or dilutive issuances of equity securities to pay transaction consideration or costs, higher than expected collaboration, acquisition or integration costs, write-downs of assets or goodwill or impairment charges, increased amortization expenses, difficulty and cost in facilitating the collaboration or combining the operations and personnel of any acquired business, impairment of relationships with key suppliers, manufacturers or customers of any acquired business due to changes in management and ownership and the inability to retain key employees of any acquired business. Accordingly, although there can be no assurance that we will undertake or successfully complete any transactions of the nature described above, any transactions that we do complete may be subject to the foregoing or other risks and have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Conversely, any failure to enter any additional collaboration or other strategic transaction that would be beneficial to us could delay the development and potential commercialization of our product candidates and have a negative impact on the competitiveness of any product candidate that reaches market.

We rely on third parties to supply key materials used in our research and development, to provide services to us and to assist with clinical trials.

We make considerable use of third-party suppliers for the key materials used in our business, such as the fetal bovine serum used in IXIARO and the adjuvant used in our COVID-19 vaccine candidate and other vaccine candidates. The failure of third-party suppliers to comply with regulatory standards could result in the imposition of sanctions on us. These sanctions could include fines, injunctions, civil penalties, refusal by regulatory organizations to grant approval to conduct clinical trials or marketing authorization for our products, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizure or recalls of our products, operating restrictions and legal proceedings. Furthermore, the presence of non-conformities, as detected in regulatory toxicology studies, could result in delays in the development of one or more of our product candidates and would require further tests to be financed. Although we are involved in establishing the protocols for the production of these materials, we do not control all the stages of production and cannot guarantee that the third parties will fulfil their contractual and regulatory obligations. In particular, a partner’s failure to comply with protocols or regulatory constraints, or repeated delays by a partner, could compromise the development of our products or limit its liability. Such events could also inflate the product development costs incurred by us.

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We also use third parties to provide certain services such as scientific, medical or strategic consultancy services. These service providers are generally selected for their specific expertise, as is the case with the academic partners with whom we collaborate. To build and maintain such a network under acceptable terms, we face intense competition. Such external collaborators may terminate, at any time, their involvement. We can exert only limited control over their activities. We may not be able to obtain the intellectual property rights to the product candidates or technologies developed under collaboration, research and license agreements under acceptable terms or at all. Moreover, our scientific collaborators may assert intellectual property rights or other rights beyond the terms of their engagement.

Finally, we use third-party investigators to assist with conducting clinical trials. All clinical trials are subject to strict regulations and quality standards. Should any of these risks materialize, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and government measures taken in response have also had a significant impact on our collaborators, and we expect that they will face further disruption which may affect our ability to initiate and complete our pre-clinical studies and clinical trials.

Risks Related to the Manufacture of Our Products and Product Candidates

We may be unable to successfully scale up manufacturing of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate in sufficient quality and quantity, which would delay or prevent us from developing and commercializing this product candidate.

We do not have experience manufacturing on the large scale that would be required for our COVID-19 vaccine candidate, if approved. We may be unable to successfully increase the manufacturing capacity for such product candidate in a timely or cost-effective manner, or at all, as needed for our commercialization efforts, if approved. We may encounter unexpected challenges relating to manufacturing efficiency. Many factors, including but not limited to the virus strains being targeted and whether VLA2001 is being used as a booster, may affect our manufacturing capacity. As a result, we do not currently know the full expected manufacturing yield of VLA2001 and announced in April 2021 that we believe that the timeline for the delivery of the 60 million doses of VLA2001 ordered by the UK Government for delivery in 2021 will extend into the first quarter of 2022. In addition, the process of developing additional manufacturing capacity is complex and affected by multiple external factors, many of which are beyond our control. Delays in manufacturing or our inability to manufacture sufficient doses of VLA2001 could adversely affect our business, financial condition, prospects and results of operations. If we are unable to manufacture sufficient quantities of VLA2001, we may not be able to fulfill our obligations under our existing agreements or may be forced to forego additional partnerships or supply agreements which would be advantageous for our business. Quality issues may also arise during scale-up activities. If we are unable to successfully scale up the manufacture of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate in sufficient quality and quantity, it would result in a material adverse impact on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

We rely on our manufacturing facilities as the sole source of manufacturing for our products and for certain of our product candidates.

Our manufacturing facilities in Livingston, Scotland, and Solna, Sweden, are, and we expect will continue to be, significant factors in growing our revenues from product sales and maintaining control over production costs. Our manufacturing facility in Livingston, Scotland is the sole source of commercial quantities of our Japanese encephalitis vaccine and will be the sole source of clinical materials for our chikungunya and COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Our manufacturing facility in Solna, Sweden, is the sole source of commercial quantities of DUKORAL. The destruction of either of these facilities by fire or other catastrophic events would prevent us from manufacturing the relevant product and supplying our customers or clinical trial centers, which would result in a material adverse impact on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

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We are reliant upon third parties to manufacture and supply components of certain substances necessary to manufacture our products and product candidates.

We are reliant on several third-party contract manufacturing organizations, or CMOs, for the manufacture and supply of components and substances for all of the product candidates we are developing. In addition, certain component materials are currently available from a single supplier, or a small number of suppliers. We cannot be sure that these suppliers will remain in business, or that they will not be purchased by one of our competitors or another company that is not interested in continuing to manufacture these materials for us. We cannot assure you that, if required, we will be able to identify alternate sources with the desired scale and capability and establish relationships with such sources. Additionally, in the biopharmaceutical industry, supplier changes require lengthy validation and regulatory approval processes. A loss of any CMO or component supplier and delay in establishing a replacement could delay our clinical development and regulatory approval process.

Manufacturing facilities and clinical trial sites are subject to significant government regulations and approvals. If we or any third parties fail to comply with these regulations or maintain these approvals, our business could be materially harmed.

Our manufacturing facilities are subject to ongoing regulation and periodic inspection by national authorities, including the EMA, FDA and other regulatory bodies to ensure compliance with cGMP when producing batches of our products and product candidates for clinical trials. CROs and other third party research organizations must also comply with GLP when carrying out regulatory toxicology studies. Any failure to follow and document our or their adherence to such GMP and GLP regulations or other regulatory requirements may lead to significant delays in the availability of products for commercial sale or clinical trials, may result in the termination of or a hold on a clinical trial, or may delay or prevent filing or approval of marketing applications for our products.

Failure to comply with applicable regulations could also result in national authorities, the EMA, FDA or other applicable regulatory authorities taking various actions, including:

Any of the foregoing actions could be detrimental to our reputation, business, financial condition or operating results. Furthermore, we or our key suppliers may not continue to be in compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements, which could result in our failure to produce our products on a timely basis and in the required quantities, if at all. In addition, before any additional products would be considered for marketing authorization in Europe, the United States or other jurisdictions, our suppliers will have to pass an inspection by the applicable regulatory agencies. We are dependent on our suppliers’ cooperation and ability to pass such inspections, and the inspections and any necessary remediation may be costly. Failure to pass such inspections by us or any of our suppliers would adversely affect our ability to commercialize our products or product candidates in Europe, the

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United States or other jurisdictions. Moreover, many of the third parties with whom we contract may also have relationships with other commercial entities, including our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting product development activities that could harm our competitive position. Should any of these risks materialize, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Our production costs may be higher than we currently estimate.

Our products and our product candidates are manufactured according to manufacturing best practices applicable to drugs for clinical trials and to specifications approved by the applicable regulatory authorities. If any of our products were found to be non-compliant, we would be required to manufacture the product again, which would entail additional costs and may prevent delivery of the product on time.

Other risks inherent in the production process may have the same effect, such as:

In addition, if we decide to manufacture VLA2001 in new or different ways, such as to target different strains of the virus or as a booster, we may face unexpected production costs that could ultimately affect profitability. Should any of these risks materialize, this could have a material adverse effect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

We use hazardous chemicals and biological materials in our business and any claims relating to improper handling, storage or disposal of these materials could be time-consuming and costly.

Our research and development and manufacturing processes involve the controlled use of hazardous materials, including chemicals and biological materials. We cannot eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or discharge and any resultant injury from these materials. We also handle genetically recombined material, genetically modified species and pathological biological samples. Consequently, in France, Sweden and Scotland where we have production facilities and in the jurisdictions where we conduct clinical trials, we are subject to environment and safety laws and regulations governing the use, storage, handling, discharge and disposal of hazardous materials, including chemical and biological products. We impose preventive and protective measures for the protection of our workforce and waste control management in accordance with applicable laws, including part four of the French Labor Code, relating to occupational health and safety.

If we fail to comply with applicable regulations, particularly those applicable to our BSL 3 classification, we could be subject to criminal prosecutions, fines, damages and may have to suspend all or part of our operations. Compliance with environmental, health and safety regulations involves additional costs, and we may have to incur significant costs to comply with future laws and regulations in relevant jurisdictions. Compliance with environmental laws and regulations could require us to purchase equipment, modify facilities and undertake considerable expenses. We do not have insurance that specifically covers liability relating to hazardous materials and could be liable for any inadvertent contamination, injury or damage, which could negatively affect our business and engage the civil and/or criminal liability of the Company and/or its representatives.

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The manufacturing of our products and product candidates present technological, logistical and regulatory risks, each of which may adversely affect our business.

The manufacturing of biological materials is technologically and logistically complex and delicate, particularly because the complexity of biological mechanisms leads to variability in industrial yields, and also because the biological material being manufactured is very vulnerable to contamination. The manufacturing of biological materials is also heavily regulated by the EMA, FDA and other regulatory authorities. The manufacturing of our products and product candidates present many risks, including, but not limited to, the following:

Any of these factors could delay clinical trials, regulatory submissions and/or commercialization of our products, interfere with current sales, entail higher costs and result in our inability to effectively sell our products.

Risks Related to Our Business Operations, Employee Matters and Managing Growth

We are highly dependent on our key personnel, and if we are not able to retain these members of our management team or recruit and retain additional management, clinical and scientific personnel, our business will be harmed.

We are highly dependent on our management, scientific and medical personnel, particularly our Chief Executive Officer Thomas Lingelbach, who we heavily rely on for a variety of matters including his knowledge of manufacturing. Our key personnel may currently terminate their employment with us at any time. The loss of the services of any of these persons could impede the achievement of our research, development and commercialization objectives. Additionally, we do not currently maintain “key person” life insurance on the lives of our executives other than Thomas Lingelbach and Juan Carlos Jaramillo or any of our employees.

Recruiting and retaining other senior executives, qualified scientific and clinical personnel and, if we progress the development of any of our product candidates, commercialization, manufacturing and sales and marketing personnel, will be critical to our success. The loss of the services of our executive officers or other key employees could impede the achievement of our research, development and commercialization objectives and seriously harm our ability to successfully implement our business strategy. Furthermore, replacing executive officers and key employees may be difficult and may take an extended period of time because of the limited number of individuals in our industry with the breadth of skills and experience required to successfully develop, gain regulatory approval of and commercialize our product candidates. Competition to hire from this limited pool is intense, and we may be unable to hire, train, retain or motivate these key personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for similar personnel. We also experience competition for the hiring of scientific and clinical personnel from universities and research institutions. In addition, we rely on consultants and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our research and development and commercialization strategy. Our consultants and advisors may have commitments under consulting or advisory contracts with other entities that may limit their availability to us. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high-quality personnel, our ability to pursue our growth strategy will be limited.

Our future performance will also depend, in part, on our ability to successfully integrate newly hired executive officers into our management team and our ability to develop an effective working relationship among senior

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management. Our failure to integrate these individuals and create effective working relationships among them and other members of management could result in inefficiencies in the development and commercialization of our product candidates, harming future regulatory approvals, sales of our product candidates and our results of operations.

We may encounter difficulties in managing our growth, which could disrupt our operations.

Our strategy involves continuing to grow our business internally. However, we may also grow externally through selective acquisitions of complementary products and technologies, or of companies with such assets, although no such plan is currently contemplated. As our development progresses, we expect to experience significant growth in the number of our employees and the scope of our operations, particularly in the areas of research, drug development, regulatory affairs and sales, marketing and distribution for our approved products. To manage our anticipated future growth, we must continue to implement and improve our managerial, operational and financial systems, expand our facilities and continue to recruit and train additional qualified personnel. Due to our limited financial resources and the extent of our anticipated growth, we may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel.

Our management may need to divert a disproportionate amount of its attention away from its day-to-day activities and devote a substantial amount of time to managing internal or external growth. We may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations which may result in weaknesses in our infrastructure, give rise to operational errors, loss of business opportunities, loss of employees and reduced productivity among remaining employees. Our expected growth could require significant capital expenditures and may divert financial resources from other projects, such as the development of existing and additional product candidates. If our management is unable to effectively manage our expected growth, our expenses may increase more than expected, our ability to generate and/or grow revenue could be reduced and we may not be able to implement our business strategy.

If we were to acquire assets or companies, the success of such an acquisition would depend on our capacity to carry out such acquisitions and to integrate such assets or companies into our existing operations. The implementation of such a strategy could impose significant constraints, including:

In addition, an acquisition could result in shareholder litigation, which could be costly and time consuming and divert management’s attention and resources. For example, following the merger between Vivalis SA and Intercell AG in 2013, certain former Intercell shareholders initiated legal proceedings to request a revision of either the cash compensation paid to departing shareholders or the exchange ratio between Intercell and Valneva shares used in the merger. We are discussing potential settlement agreements. Further, on February 8, 2021, the judicial committee in charge of these proceedings appointed an expert and requested that he give an opinion on the exchange ratio within three months. The results of this litigation or any other legal proceedings are inherently uncertain, and adverse judgments or settlements in some of these legal disputes may result in adverse and potentially substantial monetary damages, penalties or injunctive relief against us, which could negatively impact our financial position, cash flows or results of operations. See Note 5.31 to our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2020 appearing elsewhere in this prospectus for a discussion of these legal proceedings.

If we are unable to manage internal growth or have difficulty integrating any acquisitions, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

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Our business has been and could continue to be materially adversely affected by the effects of health pandemics or epidemics, including the current COVID-19 pandemic. Future outbreaks of disease, in regions where we or third parties on which we rely have significant manufacturing facilities, concentrations of clinical trial sites or other business operations, could materially affect our operations globally and at our clinical trial sites, as well as the business or operations of our manufacturers, CROs or other third parties with whom we conduct business.

Our business has been and could continue to be materially adversely affected by the effects of pandemics or epidemics, including the current outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and future outbreaks of the disease. The COVID-19 pandemic is resulting in travel and other restrictions to reduce the spread of the disease, including government orders across the globe, which, among other things, direct individuals to shelter at their places of residence, direct businesses and governmental agencies to cease non-essential operations at physical locations, prohibit certain non-essential gatherings, and order cessation of non-essential travel. As a result, a large part of our workforce has been working remotely since March 2020 and uncertainty remains about whether and to what extent the governments of the countries where we operate will impose further restrictions that will impact our ability to fully reopen our offices. The effects of government-imposed quarantines and our work-from-home policies, including the evolving nature of such policies, may negatively impact productivity and production, disrupt our business and delay our clinical programs and timelines, the magnitude of which will depend, in part, on the length and severity of the restrictions and other limitations on our ability to conduct our business in the ordinary course. These and similar, and perhaps more severe, disruptions in our operations could negatively impact our business, operating results and financial condition.

Quarantines, shelter-in-place and similar government orders, or the perception that such orders, shutdowns or other restrictions on the conduct of business operations could occur, related to COVID-19 or other infectious diseases could impact personnel at third-party manufacturing facilities, or the availability or cost of materials, which would disrupt our supply chain.

In addition, our clinical trials have been affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Site initiation and subject enrollment have been and may be further delayed due to prioritization of hospital resources toward the COVID-19 pandemic, and some subjects may not be able or willing to comply with clinical trial protocols if quarantines impede subject movement or interrupt healthcare services. Similarly, our ability to recruit and retain subjects and principal investigators and site staff who, as healthcare providers, may have heightened exposure to COVID-19, has been delayed or disrupted, which has adversely impacted our clinical trial operations. For example, the initiation of the Phase 3 clinical trial for VLA1553 (chikungunya) was delayed due to the impact of COVID-19, and we expect the trial to be completed in 2021. Further delays to our trials may occur, which could have a material adverse impact on our business.

While the potential economic impact brought by, and the duration of, the COVID-19 pandemic, may be difficult to assess or predict, it is currently resulting in significant disruption of global financial markets. This disruption, if sustained or recurrent, could make it more difficult for us to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity. In addition, a recession or market correction resulting from the spread of COVID-19 could materially affect our business and the value of our common stock.

The global pandemic of COVID-19 continues to rapidly evolve. The ultimate impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health pandemic or epidemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. We do not yet know the full extent of potential delays or impacts on our business, our clinical trials, healthcare systems or the global economy as a whole. These effects could have a material impact on our operations, and we will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely.

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We will need to hire new employees and expand our use of service providers.

As of December 31, 2020, we had 579 employees. As we continue to commercialize our products and as our development and commercialization plans and strategies develop, we must add a significant number of additional managerial, operational, sales, marketing, financial and other personnel.

We currently rely, and for the foreseeable future will continue to rely, in part on certain independent organizations, advisors and consultants to provide certain services. There can be no assurance that the services of these independent organizations, advisors and consultants will continue to be available to us on a timely basis when needed, or that we can find qualified replacements. In addition, if we are unable to effectively manage our outsourced activities or if the quality or accuracy of the services provided by consultants is compromised for any reason, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed, or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval of our product candidates or otherwise advance our business. There can be no assurance that we will be able to manage our existing consultants or find other competent outside contractors and consultants on economically reasonable terms, if at all.

If we are not able to effectively expand our organization by hiring new employees and expanding our groups of consultants and contractors, we may not be able to successfully implement the tasks necessary to further develop and commercialize our products and product candidates and, accordingly, may not achieve our sales, research, development and commercialization goals.

We have in the past and may in the future acquire or invest in other companies or technologies, which could divert our management’s attention, result in dilution to our stockholders and otherwise disrupt our operations and adversely affect our operating results.

We have in the past and may in the future seek to acquire or invest in additional businesses and/or technologies that we believe complement or expand our product candidates, as we did with the potential vaccine for COVID-19, enhance our technical capabilities or otherwise offer growth opportunities in the United States and internationally. The pursuit of potential acquisitions and investments may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur various expenses in identifying, investigating and pursuing suitable acquisitions, whether or not they are consummated.

For example, in 2015 we acquired Crucell Sweden AB and all assets, licenses and privileges related to DUKORAL. Realizing the benefits of acquisitions depends upon the successful integration of the acquired technology into our existing and future product candidates. Furthermore, we may not be able to integrate the acquired personnel, operations and technologies successfully, or effectively manage the combined business following the acquisition. We also may not realize the anticipated benefits from any acquired business. The risks we face in connection with acquisitions and investments, whether or not consummated, include:

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A significant portion of the purchase price of companies we acquire may be allocated to acquired goodwill and other intangible assets, which must be assessed for impairment at least annually. If our acquisitions do not yield expected returns, we may in the future be required to take charges to our operating results based on this impairment assessment process, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt, which could adversely affect our operating results. In addition, if an acquired business fails to meet our expectations, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may suffer. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in integrating the businesses or technologies we may acquire. The failure to successfully integrate these businesses could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Business disruptions could seriously harm our future revenue and financial condition and increase our costs and expenses.

Our operations, and those of our CMOs, CROs and other contractors and consultants, could be subject to earthquakes, power shortages, telecommunications failures, water shortages, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, fires, extreme weather conditions, public health pandemics or epidemics (including, for example, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic), and other natural or man-made disasters or business interruptions, for which we are predominantly self-insured. The occurrence of any of these business disruptions could seriously harm our operations and financial condition and increase our costs and expenses.

Our ability to develop our product candidates could be disrupted if our operations or those of our suppliers are affected by man-made or natural disasters or other business interruptions.

Our internal computer systems, or those of our collaborators, service providers or other contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer security breaches, which could result in a significant disruption of our product development programs and our ability to operate our business effectively, and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our internal computer and information technology systems, cloud-based computing services and those of our current and any future collaborators, service providers and other contractors or consultants are potentially vulnerable to malware, computer viruses, data corruption, cyber-based attacks, natural disasters, public health pandemics or epidemics (including, for example, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic), terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures that may result in damage to or the interruption or impairment of key business processes, or the loss or corruption of confidential information, including intellectual property, proprietary business information and personal information. We have in the past experienced and may in the future experience security breaches of our information technology systems. The techniques used to sabotage or to obtain unauthorized access to information systems, and networks in which cyber threat actors store data or through which they transmit data, change frequently and we may be unable to implement adequate preventative measures. Any significant system failure, accident or security breach could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. The costs to us to mitigate network security problems, bugs, viruses, worms, malicious software programs and security vulnerabilities could be significant, and while we have implemented security measures to protect our data security and information technology systems, our efforts to address these problems may not be successful, and these problems could result in unexpected

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interruptions, delays, cessation of service and other harm to our business and our competitive position. If such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a disruption of our development programs and our business operations, whether due to a loss of our trade secrets or other proprietary information or other similar disruptions. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or future clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. Additionally, we may be targeted for cyber-attacks as a result of our work on developing a COVID-19 vaccine. On May 13, 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, announced that the FBI was investigating the targeting and compromise of U.S. organizations conducting COVID-19-related research by cyber actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China. On July 16, 2020, the National Security Agency, National Cyber Security Center, Communications Security Establishment and CISA released a joint cybersecurity advisory detailing the targeting by Russian Intelligence Services of organizations involved in COVID-19 vaccine development in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. To the extent that any disruption or security breach were to result in a loss of, or damage to, our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, including but not limited to information related to our product candidates targeting SARS-CoV-2, we could incur liability, our competitive and reputational position could be harmed, and the further development and commercialization of our product candidates could be delayed.

In addition, our internal computer and information technology systems, cloud-based computing services and those of our current and any future collaborators, service providers and other contractors or consultants are potentially vulnerable to data security breaches, whether by employees, contractors, consultants, malware, phishing attacks or other cyber-attacks, that may expose confidential information, intellectual property, proprietary business information or personal information to unauthorized persons. For example, we have experienced phishing attacks in the past and we may be a target of phishing attacks or other cyber-attacks in the future. In addition, our software systems include cloud-based applications that are hosted by third-party service providers with security and information technology systems subject to similar risks. If a data security breach affects our systems, corrupts our data or results in the unauthorized disclosure or release of personally identifiable information, our reputation could be materially damaged. In addition, such a breach may require notification to governmental agencies, supervisory bodies, credit reporting agencies, the media or individuals pursuant to various federal, state and foreign data protection, privacy and security laws, regulations and guidelines, if applicable. These may include state breach notification laws, and the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. Accordingly, a data security breach or privacy violation that leads to unauthorized access to, disclosure or modification of personal information (including protected health information), that prevents access to personal information or materially compromises the privacy, security, or confidentiality of the personal information, could result in fines, increased costs or loss of revenue and we could incur liability, our competitive position could be harmed and the further development and commercialization of our product candidates could be delayed. Furthermore, federal, state and international laws and regulations, such as the GDPR, can expose us to enforcement actions and investigations by regulatory authorities, and potentially result in regulatory penalties and significant legal liability, if our information technology security efforts fail.

We (and our service providers) receive, process, store and use personal information and other data, which subjects us to governmental regulation and other legal obligations, liability and risks related to privacy, security, and data protection, and our (and our service providers’) actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could harm our reputation, subject us to significant fines and liability, and otherwise adversely affect our business.

We, and our service providers, receive, process, store and use personal information and other data about our clinical trial participants, employees, partners and others. We, and our service providers, must comply with numerous foreign and domestic laws and regulations regarding privacy and the storing, sharing, use, processing, disclosure, security, and protection of personal information and other data, such as information that we collect about patients and healthcare providers in connection with clinical trials in Europe, the United States and

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elsewhere. We strive to comply with all applicable requirements and obligations; however new laws, policies, codes of conduct and legal obligations may arise, continue to evolve, be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and conflict with one another. Any failure or perceived failure by us or third parties working on our behalf to comply with applicable laws and regulations, any privacy and data security obligations pursuant to contract or pursuant to our stated privacy or security policies or obligations to third parties may result in governmental enforcement actions (including fines, penalties, judgments, settlements, imprisonment of company officials and public censure), civil claims, litigation, damage to our reputation and loss of goodwill, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operations and financial performance. With substantial uncertainty over the interpretation and application of these laws, regulations and other obligations, we may face challenges in addressing their requirements and making necessary changes to our policies and practices, and may incur significant costs and expenses in our efforts to do so.

The global data protection landscape is rapidly evolving, and we expect that there will continue to be new and proposed laws, regulations and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection and information security, and we cannot yet determine the impact that such future laws, regulations and standards may have on our business. For example, in May 2018 the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, or GDPR, went into effect in the European Economic Area, or EEA. The GDPR imposes stringent data protection requirements for processing the information of individuals in (i) the EEA and (ii) the United Kingdom as the GDPR continues to form part of law in the United Kingdom, or the UK GDPR, (by virtue of section 3 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended (including by the various Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations)), the United Kingdom, and to date, has increased compliance burdens on us, such as requiring the following: processing personal data only for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes for which personal data were collected establishing a legal basis for processing personal data creating obligations for controllers and processors to appoint data protection officers in certain circumstances; increasing transparency obligations to data subjects for controllers (including presentation of certain information in a concise, intelligible and easily accessible form about how their personal data is used and their rights vis-à-vis that data and its use); introducing the obligation to carry out so-called data protection impact assessments in certain circumstances; establishing limitations on collection and retention of personal data through “data minimization” and “storage limitation” principles; establishing obligations to implement “privacy by design”; introducing obligations to honor increased rights for data subjects (such as rights for individuals to be “forgotten,” rights to data portability, rights to object etc. in certain circumstances); formalizing a heightened and codified standard of data subject consent; establishing obligations to implement certain technical and organizational safeguards to protect the security and confidentiality of personal data; introducing obligations to agree to certain specific contractual terms and to take certain measures when engaging third party processors and joint controllers; introducing the obligation to provide notice of certain significant personal data breaches to the relevant supervisory authority or authorities and affected individuals; and mandating the appointment representatives in the United Kingdom and/or European Union in certain circumstances. The processing of sensitive personal data, such as health information, may impose heightened compliance burdens under the GDPR and is a topic of active interest among foreign regulators. The GDPR increases our obligations with respect to clinical trials conducted in Europe (including the EEA, United Kingdom and Switzerland) by expressly expanding the definition of personal data to include “pseudonymized” or key-coded data and requiring changes to informed consent practices and more detailed notices for clinical trial subjects and investigators.

The GDPR also provides for more robust regulatory enforcement and greater penalties for noncompliance than previous data protection laws, including fines of up to €20 million or 4% of global annual revenue of any noncompliant company for the preceding financial year, whichever is higher. In addition to administrative fines, a wide variety of other potential enforcement powers are available to competent supervisory authorities in respect of potential and suspected violations of the GDPR, including extensive audit and inspection rights, and powers to order temporary or permanent bans on all or some processing of personal data carried out by non-compliant actors. The GDPR also confers a private right of action on data subjects and consumer associations to lodge complaints with supervisory authorities, seek judicial remedies, and obtain compensation for damages resulting from violations of the GDPR.

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European data protection laws, including the GDPR, generally restrict the transfer of personal data from Europe, including the EEA, United Kingdom and Switzerland, to the United States and most other countries unless the parties to the transfer have implemented specific safeguards to protect the transferred personal data. One of the primary safeguards allowing U.S. companies to import personal data from Europe had been certification to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield frameworks administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce. However, the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield was invalidated in July 2020 by the Court of Justice of the European Union, or CJEU, in a case known colloquially as “Schrems II.” Following this decision, the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, or the FDPIC, announced that the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield does not provide adequate safeguards for the purposes of personal data transfers from Switzerland to the United States. While the FDPIC does not have authority to invalidate the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield regime, the FDPIC’s announcement casts doubt on the viability of the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield as a future compliance mechanism for Swiss-U.S. data transfers. The CJEU’s decision in Schrems II also raised questions about whether one of the primary alternatives to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, namely, the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, can lawfully be used for personal data transfers from Europe to the United States or other third countries that are not the subject of an adequacy decision of the European Commission. While the CJEU upheld the adequacy of the Standard Contractual Clauses in principle in Schrems II, it made clear that reliance on those Clauses alone may not necessarily be sufficient in all circumstances. Use of the Standard Contractual Clauses must now be assessed on a case-by-case basis taking into account the legal regime applicable in the destination country, in particular regarding applicable surveillance laws and relevant rights of individuals with respect to the transferred data. In the context of any given transfer, where the legal regime applicable in the destination country may or does conflict with the intended operation of the Standard Contractual Clauses and/or applicable European law, the decision in Schrems II and subsequent draft guidance from the European Data Protection Board, or EDPB, would require the parties to that transfer to implement certain supplementary technical, organizational and/or contractual measures to rely on the Standard Contractual Clauses as a compliant “transfer mechanism.” However, the draft guidance from the EDPB on such supplementary technical, organizational and/or contractual measures appears to conclude that no combination of such measures could be sufficient to allow effective reliance on the Standard Contractual Clauses in the context of transfers of personal data “in the clear” to recipients in countries where the power granted to public authorities to access the transferred data goes beyond that which is “necessary and proportionate in a democratic society” – which may, following the CJEU’s conclusions in Schrems II on relevant powers of United States public authorities and commentary in that draft EDPB guidance, include the United States in certain circumstances (e.g., where Section 702 of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applies). At present, there are few, if any, viable alternatives to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and the Standard Contractual Clauses. However, the Court of Justice of the European Union recently invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield. The decision in Schrems II also affects transfers from the United Kingdom to the United States. As such, if we are unable to implement a valid solution for personal data transfers from Europe, including, for example, obtaining individuals’ explicit consent to transfer their personal data from Europe to the United States or other countries, we will face increased exposure to regulatory actions, substantial fines and injunctions against processing personal data from Europe. Inability to import personal data from the EEA, United Kingdom or Switzerland may also restrict our clinical trials activities in Europe; limit our ability to collaborate with contract research organizations as well as other service providers, contractors and other companies subject to European data protection laws; and require us to increase our data processing capabilities in Europe at significant expense. Additionally, other countries outside of Europe have enacted or are considering enacting similar cross-border data transfer restrictions and laws requiring local data residency, which could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services and operating our business. The type of challenges we face in Europe will likely also arise in other jurisdictions that adopt laws similar in construction to the GDPR or regulatory frameworks of equivalent complexity.

The GDPR applies across the EEA and, by virtue of the UK GDPR in the United Kingdom, in a broadly uniform manner. However, the GDPR provides that EEA member states may make their own further laws and regulations to introduce specific requirements related to the processing of “special categories of personal data,” including personal data related to health, biometric data used for unique identification purposes and genetic information; as well as personal data related to criminal offences or convictions – in the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom

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Data Protection Act 2018 complements the UK GDPR in this regard. This fact may lead to greater divergence on the law that applies to the processing of such data types across the EEA and/or United Kingdom, compliance with which, as and where applicable, may increase our costs and could increase our overall compliance risk. Such country-specific regulations could also limit our ability to collect, use and share data in the context of our EEA and/or United Kingdom establishments (regardless of where any processing in question occurs), and/or could cause our compliance costs to increase, ultimately having an adverse impact on our business, and harming our business and financial condition.

Further, the United Kingdom’s vote in favor of exiting the European Union, often referred to as Brexit, and ongoing developments in the United Kingdom have created uncertainty with regard to data protection regulation in the United Kingdom. Following the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union on January 31, 2020, pursuant to the transitional arrangements agreed to between the United Kingdom and European Union, the GDPR continued to have effect in law in the United Kingdom, and continued to do so until December 31, 2020 as if the United Kingdom remained a Member State of the European Union for such purposes. Following December 31, 2020, and the expiry of those transitional arrangements, the data protection obligations of the GDPR continue to apply to United Kingdom related to processing of personal data in substantially unvaried form and fashion under the UK GDPR. However, going forward, there will be increasing scope for divergence in application, interpretation and enforcement of the data protection law as between the United Kingdom and EEA. Furthermore, the relationship between the United Kingdom and the EEA in relation to certain aspects of data protection law remains unclear. For example, it is still unclear whether transfers of data from the EEA to the United Kingdom will take place on the basis of an adequacy decision or whether we will need to implement appropriate safeguards as required by the GDPR. For the meantime, under the post-Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement, or the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, between the European Union and the United Kingdom, it has been agreed that transfers of personal data to the United Kingdom from European Union Member States will not be treated as “restricted transfers” to a non-EEA country for a period of up to six months from January 1, 2021. This will also apply to transfers to the United Kingdom from EEA Member States, assuming those Member States accede to the relevant provision of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Although the current maximum duration of the extended adequacy assessment period is six months it may end sooner, for example, in the event that the European Commission adopts an adequacy decision in respect of the United Kingdom, or the United Kingdom amends the UK GDPR and/or makes certain changes regarding data transfers under the UK GDPR/ Data Protection Act 2018 without the consent of the European Union (unless those amendments or decisions are made simply to keep relevant United Kingdom laws aligned with the European Union’s data protection regime). Unless the European Commission adopts an adequacy decision in respect of the United Kingdom prior to the expiry of the extended adequacy assessment period, from that point onwards the United Kingdom will be an “inadequate third country” under the GDPR and transfers of data from the EEA to the United Kingdom will require an “transfer mechanism,” such as the standard contractual clauses. Additionally, as noted above, the United Kingdom has transposed the GDPR into United Kingdom domestic law by way of the UK GDPR with effect from in January 2021, which could expose us to two parallel regimes, each of which potentially authorizes similar fines and other potentially divergent enforcement actions for certain violations.

Additionally, other countries outside of Europe have enacted or are considering enacting similar cross-border data transfer restrictions and laws requiring local data residency, which could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services and operating our business.

It is possible that the GDPR or other laws and regulations relating to privacy and data protection may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction or inconsistent with our current policies and practices and compliance with such laws and regulations could require us to change our business practices and compliance procedures in a manner adverse to our business. We cannot guarantee that we are in compliance with all such applicable data protection laws and regulations and we cannot be sure how these regulations will be interpreted, enforced or applied to our operations. Furthermore, other jurisdictions outside the European Union are similarly introducing or enhancing privacy and data security laws, rules, and regulations, which could increase our compliance costs and the risks associated with noncompliance. It is possible that these

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laws may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our practices and our efforts to comply with the evolving data protection rules may be unsuccessful. We cannot guarantee that we, our third-party collaborators, or our vendors are in compliance with all applicable data protection and privacy laws and regulations as they are enforced now or as they evolve. Further, for example, our privacy policies may be insufficient to protect any personal information we collect, or may not comply with applicable laws. Our non-compliance could result in government-imposed fines or orders requiring that we change our practices, which could adversely affect our business. In addition to the risks associated with enforcement activities and potential contractual liabilities, our ongoing efforts to comply with evolving laws and regulations at the federal and state level may be costly and require ongoing modifications to our policies, procedures and systems. In addition, if we are unable to properly protect the privacy and security of protected health information, we could be found to have breached our contracts.

Our actual or perceived failure to adequately comply with applicable laws and regulations relating to privacy and data protection, or to protect personal data and other data we process or maintain, could result in regulatory enforcement actions against us, including fines, penalties, orders that require a change in our practices, additional reporting requirements and/or oversight, imprisonment of company officials and public censure, claims for damages by affected individuals, other lawsuits or reputational and damage, all of which could materially affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Our employees, principal investigators, consultants and commercial partners may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements and insider trading.

We are exposed to the risk of fraud or other misconduct by our employees, principal investigators, consultants and commercial partners. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional failures, reckless and/or negligent conduct or unauthorized activities that violates (i) the laws and regulations of EMA, FDA and other regulatory authorities, including those laws requiring the reporting of true, complete and accurate information to such authorities, (ii) manufacturing standards, (iii) federal and state data privacy, security, fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations in Europe, the United States and elsewhere and (iv) laws that require the true, complete and accurate reporting of financial information or data. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, misconduct, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. Such misconduct also could involve the improper use of individually identifiable information, including, without limitation, information obtained in the course of clinical trials, creating fraudulent data in our pre-clinical studies or clinical trials or illegal misappropriation of drug product, which could result in regulatory sanctions and cause serious harm to our reputation. It is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct by employees and other third parties, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from government investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to comply with these laws or regulations. Additionally, we are subject to the risk that a person or government could allege such fraud or other misconduct, even if none occurred. If any such actions are instituted against us and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could result in significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, imprisonment, exclusion from participating in government-funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, additional reporting requirements and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or similar agreement to resolve allegations of noncompliance with these laws, contractual damages, reputational harm and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

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We benefit from tax credits in Austria and France that could be reduced or eliminated.

As a company with research and development activity, we benefit from certain tax advantages, including the Austrian Research and Development tax credit and the French Research Tax Credit (Crédit Impôt Recherche), which are tax credits aimed at stimulating research and development. Our Austrian Research and Development tax credits were €8.9 million and €4.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Our French Research Tax Credits were €1.1 million and €1.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. The Austrian Research and Development tax credit is calculated based on claimed amount of eligible research and development in Austria, while the French Research Tax credit is calculated based on our claimed amount of eligible research and development expenditures in France. The main differences between the Austrian and French research tax credits are the applicable percentage of and the basis for the tax credit. The tax credits are a source of financing to us that could be reduced or eliminated by the Austrian and French tax authorities or by changes in Austrian and French tax law or regulations.

The Austrian Research and Development tax credit is reimbursed to us. While the Austrian Research and Development tax credit is reviewed as a part of the issuance of a certificate by the local auditor and the research and development projects need an approval from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), the Austrian tax authority may audit each research and development claim. The Austrian tax authorities may challenge our eligibility for, our calculation of, certain tax reductions in respect of our research and development activities (and therefore the amount of Research and Development Tax Credit claimed). Furthermore, the Austrian Parliament may decide to eliminate, or to reduce the scope or the rate of, the Research Tax Credit benefit, either of which it could decide to do at any time.

The French Research Tax Credit can be offset against French corporate income tax due by the company with respect to the year during which the eligible research and development expenditures have been made. The portion of tax credit in excess which is not being offset, if any, represents a receivable against the French Treasury which can in principle be offset against the French corporate income tax due by the company with respect to the three following years. The remaining portion of tax credit not being offset upon expiry of such a period may then be refunded to the company. The French Research Tax credit is reimbursed within the expiry of a period of three years.

The French tax authorities, with the assistance of the Higher Education and Research Ministry, may audit each research and development program in respect of which a Research Tax Credit benefit has been claimed and assess whether such program qualifies in their view for the Research Tax Credit benefit. The French tax authorities may challenge our eligibility for, or our calculation of, certain tax reductions or deductions in respect of our research and development activities (and therefore the amount of Research Tax Credit claimed). Furthermore, the French Parliament may decide to eliminate, or to reduce the scope or the rate of, the Research Tax Credit benefit, either of which it could decide to do at any time.

If we fail to receive future Research Tax Credit amounts or if our calculations are challenged, even if we comply with the current requirements in terms of documentation and eligibility of its expenditure, our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We may be unable to carry forward existing tax losses.

We have accumulated tax loss carry forwards of €529.5 million and €457.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Applicable French law provides that, for fiscal years ending after December 31, 2012, the use of these tax losses is limited to €1.0 million, plus 50% of the portion of net earnings exceeding this amount. The unused balance of the tax losses in application of such rule can be carried forward to future fiscal years, under the same conditions and without time restriction. There can be no assurance that future changes to applicable tax law and regulation will not eliminate or alter these or other provisions in a manner unfavorable to us, which could have an adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.

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Comprehensive tax reform legislation could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed into law the Tax Act, which significantly reformed the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code. The Tax Act, among other things, includes changes to U.S. federal tax rates, imposes significant additional limitations on the deductibility of interest and net operating loss carryforwards, allows for the expensing of capital expenditures, and puts into effect the migration from a “worldwide” system of taxation to a territorial system. While we have reflected the expected impact of the Tax Act in our financial statements in accordance with our understanding of the Tax Act and available guidance, the ultimate effects of the Tax Act remain uncertain. The U.S. Department of Treasury may issue regulations and guidance that may significantly impact how the Tax Act applies to us, and components of the Tax Act could be repealed or modified in future legislation. In addition, it is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the Tax Act. The foregoing items may and result in changes may have an adverse impact on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

Furthermore, as part of Congress’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, or FFCR Act, was enacted on March 18, 2020, and the CARES Act was enacted on March 27, 2020. Both the FFCR Act and the CARES Act contain numerous tax provisions. Regulatory guidance under the FFCR Act and the CARES Act is and continues to be forthcoming, and such guidance could ultimately increase or lessen the impact of these laws on our business and financial condition.

Our business may be exposed to foreign exchange risks.

We operate internationally and are exposed to foreign exchange risks arising from various currencies, primarily with respect to the Euro (EUR), the British Pound (GBP), the Canadian Dollar (CAD), the Swedish Krona (SEK) and the U.S. Dollar (USD). Foreign exchange risks arise from future commercial transactions, recognized assets and liabilities, and net investments in foreign operations. Because a substantial part of sales are generated in the United States for IXIARO, with production costs in GBP, and in Canada for DUKORAL, with production costs in SEK, we are exposed to foreign exchange risks, principally with respect to the USD, GBP, SEK and CAD. We have entered into currency option contracts to limit the risk of foreign exchange losses. However, our results of operations continue to be impacted by exchange rate fluctuations. For example, a substantial part of our sales are generated in the United States for IXIARO, with production costs in GBP, and in Canada for DUKORAL, with production costs in SEK. As a result, we are exposed to foreign currency exchange risk as our results of operations and cash flows are subject to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. For example, an increase in the value of the euro against the U.S. dollar could be expected to have a negative impact on our revenue and earnings growth as U.S. dollar revenue and earnings, if any, would be translated into euro at a reduced value. While we entered into currency option contracts in 2018, 2019 and 2020 to limit the risk of foreign exchange losses, we cannot predict the impact of foreign currency fluctuations, and foreign currency fluctuations in the future may adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. The ADSs being offered in the U.S. offering will be quoted in U.S. dollars on Nasdaq, while our ordinary shares trade in euro on Euronext Paris. Our financial statements are prepared in euro. Therefore, fluctuations in the exchange rate between the euro and the U.S. dollar will also affect, among other matters, the value of our ordinary shares and ADSs. We could also sign contracts denominated in other currencies, which would increase our exposure to currency risk. In accordance with our business decisions, our exposure to this type of risk could change depending on:

Should any of these risks materialize, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

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Risks Related to Ownership of Our Ordinary Shares and the ADSs

We do not currently intend to pay dividends on our securities and, consequently, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of the ordinary shares and ADSs. In addition, French law may limit the amount of dividends we are able to distribute.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our ordinary shares and do not currently intend to do so for the foreseeable future. We currently intend to invest our future earnings, if any, to fund our growth. Therefore, you are not likely to receive any dividends on your ADSs for the foreseeable future and the success of an investment in the ADSs will depend upon any future appreciation in its value. Consequently, investors may need to sell all or part of their holdings of the ADSs after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment. There is no guarantee that the ADSs will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which our shareholders have purchased them. Investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase the ADSs.

Further, under French law, the determination of whether we have been sufficiently profitable to pay dividends is made on the basis of our statutory financial statements prepared and presented in accordance with accounting standards applicable in France. Moreover, pursuant to French law, we must allocate 5% of our unconsolidated net profit for each year to our legal reserve fund before dividends, should we propose to declare any, may be paid for that year, until the amount in the legal reserve is equal to 10% of the aggregate nominal value of our issued and outstanding share capital. In addition, payment of dividends may subject us to additional taxes under French law. Therefore, we may be more restricted in our ability to declare dividends than companies that are not incorporated in France. See “Description of Share Capital—Key Provisions of Our Bylaws and French Law Affecting Our Ordinary Shares” for further details on the limitations on our ability to declare and pay dividends and the taxes that may become payable by us if we elect to pay a dividend.

In addition, exchange rate fluctuations may affect the amount of euro that we are able to distribute, and the amount in U.S. dollars that our shareholders receive upon the payment of cash dividends or other distributions we declare and pay in euro, if any. These factors could harm the value of the ADSs, and, in turn, the U.S. dollar proceeds that holders receive from the sale of the ADSs.

If you purchase ADS in this global offering, you will experience substantial and immediate dilution.

If you purchase ADS in this global offering, you will experience substantial and immediate dilution of €                ($                ) per ordinary share in the net tangible book value after giving effect to the global offering at an offering price of $                per ADS (corresponding to €                per ordinary share in the European private placement), because the price that you pay will be substantially greater than the net tangible book value per ADS or ordinary share, as applicable, that you acquire. This dilution is due in large part to the fact that our earlier investors paid substantially less than the initial offering price when they purchased their ordinary shares. You will experience additional dilution upon exercise of any outstanding equity warrants (bons de souscription d’actions), stock options, upon the vesting of free ordinary shares (actions ordinaires gratuites) or upon conversion of convertible preferred shares or if we otherwise issue additional ordinary shares or ADSs below the offering price. For a further description of the dilution that you will experience immediately after this global offering, see “Dilution.”

In addition, in the future, we may issue additional ADSs, ordinary shares, or other equity or debt securities convertible into ordinary shares, or seek additional capital through a variety of means, including public or private equity. Any such issuance or financings could result in substantial dilution to our existing securityholders and could cause the price of our ADSs to decline.

Future sales of ordinary shares or ADSs by existing shareholders could depress the market price of the ordinary shares or ADSs.

If our existing shareholders sell, or indicate an intent to sell, substantial amounts of ordinary shares or ADSs in the public market after the 90-day contractual lock-up and other legal restrictions on resale discussed in this

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prospectus lapse, the trading price of the ADSs could decline significantly and could decline below the offering price. Upon completion of the global offering, based on the number of ordinary shares outstanding as of                , 2021, we will have issued                ordinary shares, including ordinary shares represented by ADSs, approximately                of which are subject to a contractual restriction on selling for up to 90 days, subject to customary exceptions. As of the date of this prospectus, the exercise of all our instruments convertible into ordinary shares would enable the subscription of new ordinary shares, representing approximately    % of the diluted share capital. Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE and Jefferies LLC may waive the lock-up agreements entered into in connection with this offering prior to the expiration thereof in their sole discretion. See “Underwriting.”

After the lock-up agreements pertaining to this offering expire, and based on the number of ordinary shares issued upon completion of this global offering, including ordinary shares represented by ADSs, additional ordinary shares will be eligible for sale in the public market, all of which ordinary shares are held by members of the Management Board and of the Supervisory Board and other affiliates and will be subject to volume limitations under Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. In addition, the ordinary shares subject to subscription under our instruments convertible under shares will become eligible for sale in the public market in the future, subject to certain legal and contractual limitations. Sales of a large number of the ordinary shares in the public market could have an adverse effect on the market price of the ADSs. See “Shares and ADSs Eligible for Future Sale” for a more detailed description of sales that may occur in the future. If these additional ordinary shares are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold, in the public market, the trading price of the ordinary shares and ADSs could decline substantially.

The dual listing of our ordinary shares and the ADSs following this global offering may adversely affect the liquidity and value of the ADSs.

Following this global offering and after the ADSs begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, our ordinary shares will continue to be listed on Euronext Paris. Trading of the ADSs or ordinary shares in these markets will take place in different currencies (U.S. dollars on Nasdaq and euro on Euronext Paris), and at different times (resulting from different time zones, different trading days and different public holidays in the United States and France). The trading prices of our ordinary shares on these two markets may differ due to these and other factors. Any decrease in the price of our ordinary shares on Euronext Paris could cause a decrease in the trading price of the ADSs on Nasdaq. Investors could seek to sell or buy our ordinary shares to take advantage of any price differences between the markets through a practice referred to as arbitrage. Any arbitrage activity could create unexpected volatility in both our share prices on one exchange, and the ordinary shares available for trading on the other exchange. In addition, holders of ADSs will not be immediately able to surrender their ADSs and withdraw the underlying ordinary shares for trading on the other market without effecting necessary procedures with the depositary. This could result in time delays and additional cost for holders of ADSs. We cannot predict the effect of this dual listing on the value of our ordinary shares and the ADSs. However, the dual listing of our ordinary shares and the ADSs may reduce the liquidity of these securities in one or both markets and may adversely affect the development of an active trading market for the ADSs in the United States.

The rights of shareholders in companies subject to French corporate law differ in material respects from the rights of shareholders of corporations incorporated in the United States.

We are a European public company with limited liability (Societas Europaea or SE), with our headquarters in France. Our corporate affairs are governed by our bylaws and by the laws governing companies incorporated in France. The rights of shareholders and the responsibilities of members of our Management Board and of our Supervisory Board are in many ways different from the rights and obligations of shareholders in companies governed by the laws of U.S. jurisdictions. For example, in the performance of its duties, our Management Board is required by French law to consider the interests of our company, its shareholders, its employees and other stakeholders, rather than solely our shareholders and/or creditors. It is possible that some of these parties will

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have interests that are different from, or in addition to, your interests as a shareholder or holder of ADSs. Further, in accordance with French law, as long as a double voting right is attached to each ordinary share which is held in registered form in the name of the same shareholder for at least two years, ordinary shares deposited with the depositary will not be entitled to double voting rights. Therefore, holders of ADSs who wish to obtain double voting rights will need to surrender their ADSs, withdraw the deposited shares, and take the necessary steps to hold such ordinary shares in registered form in the holder’s name for at least two years. See “Management—Corporate Governance Practices” and “Description of Share Capital.”

U.S. investors may have difficulty enforcing civil liabilities against our company and members of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board.

Most of the members of our Management Board and Supervisory Board and the experts named in this prospectus are non-residents of the United States, and all or a substantial portion of our assets and the assets of such persons are located outside the United States. As a result, it may not be possible to serve process on such persons or us in the United States or to enforce judgments obtained in U.S. courts against them or us based on civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the United States. Additionally, it may be difficult to assert U.S. securities law claims in actions originally instituted outside of the United States. Foreign courts may refuse to hear a U.S. securities law claim because foreign courts may not be the most appropriate forums in which to bring such a claim. Even if a foreign court agrees to hear a claim, it may determine that the law of the jurisdiction in which the foreign court resides, and not U.S. law, is applicable to the claim. Further, if U.S. law is found to be applicable, the content of applicable U.S. law must be proved as a fact, which can be a time-consuming and costly process, and certain matters of procedure would still be governed by the law of the jurisdiction in which the foreign court resides. In particular, there is some doubt as to whether French courts would recognize and enforce certain civil liabilities under U.S. securities laws in original actions or judgments of U.S. courts based upon these civil liability provisions. In addition, awards of punitive damages in actions brought in the United States or elsewhere may be unenforceable in France. An award for monetary damages under the U.S. securities laws would be considered punitive if it does not seek to compensate the claimant for loss or damage suffered but is intended to punish the defendant. French law provides that a shareholder, or a group of shareholders, may initiate a legal action to seek indemnification from the directors of a corporation in the corporation’s interest if it fails to bring such legal action itself. If so, any damages awarded by the court are paid to the corporation and any legal fees relating to such action may be borne by the relevant shareholder or the group of shareholders. The enforceability of any judgment in France will depend on the particular facts of the case as well as the laws and treaties in effect at the time. The United States and France do not currently have a treaty providing for recognition and enforcement of judgments, other than arbitration awards, in civil and commercial matters. See “Enforcement of Civil Liabilities.”

Our bylaws and French corporate law contain provisions that may delay or discourage a takeover attempt.

Provisions contained in our bylaws and French corporate law could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if doing so might be beneficial to our shareholders. In addition, provisions of our bylaws impose various procedural and other requirements, which could make it more difficult for shareholders to effect certain corporate actions. These provisions include the following:

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There are material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting and if we are unable to maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting, the accuracy and timeliness of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, which could hurt our business, lessen investor confidence and depress the market price of our securities.

We must maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in order to accurately and timely report our results of operations and financial condition. In addition, as a public company listed in the United States, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act will require, among other things, that we assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting at the end of each fiscal year starting with the end of the first full fiscal year after the completion of the global offering. However, our independent registered public accounting firms will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting for so long as we are an “emerging growth company,” which may be up to five fiscal years following the date of this global offering. An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls could detect problems that our management’s assessment might not.

Our management has not completed an assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, and our independent registered public accounting firms have not conducted an audit of our internal control over financial reporting. In conjunction with preparing our consolidated financial statements as of and for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 for this offering, three material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting were identified. The material weaknesses related to (i) a lack of formal, documented and implemented processes, controls and review procedures, (ii) insufficient controls on manual journal entries due to insufficient segregation of duties in the finance and accounting function, and (iii) insufficient controls over the accuracy and completeness of information that is being processed and reported by third parties, used to recognize revenue and record inventory. These material weaknesses did not result in a material misstatement to our financial statements included herein, however these material weaknesses could result in material inaccuracies in our financial statements and impair our ability to comply with applicable financial reporting requirements and related regulatory filings on a timely basis.

We have begun to develop a remediation plan to address these material weaknesses and strengthen our controls in these areas. While we are working to remediate the material weaknesses as quickly and efficiently as possible, we cannot at this time provide the expected timeline in connection with implementing our remediation plan. As of December 31, 2020, we had not yet completed remediation of these material weaknesses. These remediation measures may be time-consuming and costly, and might place significant demands on our financial and operational resources.

The rules governing the standards that will have to be met for our management to assess our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are complex and require significant documentation, testing and possible remediation. These stringent standards require that our audit committee be advised and regularly updated on management’s review of internal control over financial reporting. We have begun the process of designing, implementing, and testing the internal control over financial reporting required to comply with this obligation. This process is time-consuming, costly, and complicated. Our management may not

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be able to effectively and timely implement controls and procedures that adequately respond to the increased regulatory compliance and reporting requirements that will be applicable to us as a public company listed in the United States. If we fail to staff our accounting and finance function adequately or maintain internal control over financial reporting adequate to meet the demands that will be placed upon us as a public company listed in the United States, our business and reputation may be harmed and the price of our ordinary shares and ADSs may decline. In addition, undetected material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting could lead to restatements of financial statements and require us to incur the expense of remediation. Any of these developments could result in investor perceptions of us being adversely affected, which could cause a decline in the market price of our securities.

Existing and potential investors in our ordinary shares or ADSs may have to request the prior authorization from the French Ministry of Economy prior to acquiring a significant ownership position in our ordinary shares or ADSs.

Under French law, investments of more than 25% by certain individuals or entities in a French company deemed to be a strategic industry may be subject to prior authorization of the French Ministry of Economy pursuant to Articles L. 151-1 et seq. and R. 151-1 et seq. of the French Monetary and financial code.

If an investment requiring the prior authorization of the French Minister of Economy is completed without such authorization having been granted, the French Minister of Economy might direct the relevant investor to nonetheless (i) submit a request for authorization, (ii) have the previous situation restored at its own expense or (iii) amend the investment. The relevant investor might also be found criminally liable and might be sanctioned with a fine which cannot exceed the greater of: (i) twice the amount of the relevant investment, (ii) 10% of the annual turnover before tax of the target company and (iii) €5 million (for an entity) or €1 million (for an individual).

In the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Decree (décret) no. 2020 892 dated July 22, 2020, as amended by the Decree (décret) no. 2020-1729 dated December 28, 2020 has created until December 31, 2021 a new 10% threshold of the voting rights for the non-European investments made (i) in an entity having its registered office in France and (ii) whose shares are admitted to trading on a regulated market, in addition to the 25% above-mentioned threshold. The transactions falling within the scope of the Decree (décret) no. 2020-892, as amended, benefit from a “fast-track procedure” pursuant to which the investor is exempt from the authorization request provided for in Article R. 151-5 of the Monetary and Financial Code, provided that the investment project has been the subject of prior notification to the French Minister of Economy and that the transaction is carried out within six months following the notification. Unless the French Minister of Economy objects, the authorization is granted at the end of a period of ten working days following notification. For more information, see “Limitations Affecting Shareholders of a French Company.”

Failure to comply with such measures could result in significant consequences on the applicable investor. Such measures could also delay or discourage a takeover attempt, and we cannot predict whether these measures will result in a lower or more volatile market price of our ADSs.

Purchasers of ADSs in the U.S. offering will not be directly holding our ordinary shares.

A holder of ADSs will not be treated as one of our shareholders and will not have direct shareholder rights, unless he withdraws the ordinary shares underlying his ADSs. French law governs our shareholder rights. The depositary, through the custodian or the custodian’s nominee, will be the holder of the ordinary shares underlying ADSs held by purchasers of ADSs in the U.S. offering. Purchasers of ADSs in the U.S. offering will have ADS holder rights. The deposit agreement among us, the depositary and purchasers of ADSs in the U.S. offering, as an ADS holder, and all other persons directly and indirectly holding ADSs, sets out ADS holder rights, as well as the rights and obligations of us and the depositary.

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Your right as a holder of ADSs to participate in any future preferential subscription rights offering or to elect to receive dividends in shares may be limited, which may cause dilution to your holdings.

According to French law, if we issue additional securities for cash, current shareholders will have preferential subscription rights for these securities on a pro rata basis unless they waive those rights at an extraordinary meeting of our shareholders (by a two-thirds majority vote) or individually by each shareholder. However, our ADS holders in the United States will not be entitled to exercise or sell such rights unless we register the rights and the securities to which the rights relate under the Securities Act or an exemption from the registration requirements is available. In addition, the deposit agreement provides that the depositary will not make rights available to you unless the distribution to ADS holders of both the rights and any related securities are either registered under the Securities Act or exempted from registration under the Securities Act. Further, if we offer holders of our ordinary shares the option to receive dividends in either cash or shares, under the deposit agreement the depositary may require satisfactory assurances from us that extending the offer to holders of ADSs does not require registration of any securities under the Securities Act before making the option available to holders of ADSs. We are under no obligation to file a registration statement with respect to any such rights or securities or to endeavor to cause such a registration statement to be declared effective. Moreover, we may not be able to establish an exemption from registration under the Securities Act. Accordingly, ADS holders may be unable to participate in our rights offerings or to elect to receive dividends in shares and may experience dilution in their holdings. In addition, if the depositary is unable to sell rights that are not exercised or not distributed or if the sale is not lawful or reasonably practicable, it will allow the rights to lapse, in which case you will receive no value for these rights.

You may not be able to exercise your right to vote the ordinary shares underlying your ADSs.

Holders of ADSs may exercise voting rights with respect to the ordinary shares represented by the ADSs only in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement. The deposit agreement provides that, upon receipt of notice of any meeting of holders of our ordinary shares, the depositary will fix a record date for the determination of ADS holders who shall be entitled to give instructions for the exercise of voting rights. Upon timely receipt of notice from us, if we so request, the depositary shall distribute to the holders as of the record date (i) the notice of the meeting or solicitation of consent or proxy sent by us and (ii) a statement as to the manner in which instructions may be given by the holders.

You may instruct the depositary of your ADSs to vote the ordinary shares underlying your ADSs. Otherwise, you will not be able to exercise your right to vote, unless you withdraw the ordinary shares underlying the ADSs you hold. However, you may not know about the meeting far enough in advance to withdraw those ordinary shares. If we ask for your instructions, the depositary, upon timely notice from us, will notify you of the upcoming vote and arrange to deliver our voting materials to you. We cannot guarantee you that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote your ordinary shares or to withdraw your ordinary shares so that you can vote them yourself. If the depositary does not receive timely voting instructions from you, it may give a proxy to a person designated by us to vote the ordinary shares underlying your ADSs. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out voting instructions or for the manner of carrying out voting instructions. This means that you may not be able to exercise your right to vote, and there may be nothing you can do if the ordinary shares underlying your ADSs are not voted as you requested.

You may be subject to limitations on the transfer of your ADSs and the withdrawal of the underlying ordinary shares.

Your ADSs are transferable on the books of the depositary. However, the depositary may close its books at any time or from time to time when it deems expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. The depositary may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of your ADSs generally when our books or the books of the depositary are closed, or at any time if we or the depositary think it is advisable to do so because of any requirement of law, government or governmental body, or under any provision of the deposit agreement, or

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for any other reason subject to your right to cancel your ADSs and withdraw the underlying ordinary shares. Temporary delays in the cancellation of your ADSs and withdrawal of the underlying ordinary shares may arise because the depositary has closed its transfer books or we have closed our transfer books, the transfer of ordinary shares is blocked to permit voting at a shareholders’ meeting or we are paying a dividend on our ordinary shares. In addition, you may not be able to cancel your ADSs and withdraw the underlying ordinary shares when you owe money for fees, taxes and similar charges and when it is necessary to prohibit withdrawals in order to comply with any laws or governmental regulations that apply to ADSs or to the withdrawal of ordinary shares or other deposited securities. See the section of this prospectus titled “Description of American Depositary Shares.”

ADSs holders may not be entitled to a jury trial with respect to claims arising under the deposit agreement, which could result in less favorable outcomes to the plaintiffs in any such action.

The deposit agreement governing the ADSs representing our ordinary shares provides that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, ADS holders, including holders who acquire ADSs in the secondary market, waive the right to a jury trial of any claim they may have against us or the depositary arising out of or relating to our shares, the ADSs or the deposit agreement, including any claim under the U.S. federal securities laws.

If we or the depositary opposed a jury trial demand based on the waiver, the court would determine whether the waiver was enforceable based on the facts and circumstances of that case in accordance with the applicable state and federal law. To our knowledge, the enforceability of a contractual pre-dispute jury trial waiver in connection with claims arising under the federal securities laws has not been finally adjudicated by the United States Supreme Court. However, we believe that a contractual pre-dispute jury trial waiver provision is generally enforceable, including under the laws of the State of New York, which govern the deposit agreement, by a federal or state court in the City of New York, which has non-exclusive jurisdiction over matters arising under the deposit agreement. In determining whether to enforce a contractual pre-dispute jury trial waiver provision, courts will generally consider whether a party knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily waived the right to a jury trial. We believe that this is the case with respect to the deposit agreement and the ADSs. It is advisable that you consult legal counsel regarding the jury waiver provision before entering into the deposit agreement.

If you or any other holders or beneficial owners of ADSs bring a claim against us or the depositary in connection with matters arising under the deposit agreement or the ADSs, including claims under federal securities laws, you or such other holder or beneficial owner may not be entitled to a jury trial with respect to such claims, which may have the effect of limiting and discouraging lawsuits against us and the depositary. If a lawsuit is brought against either or both of us and the depositary under the deposit agreement, it may be heard only by a judge or justice of the applicable trial court, which would be conducted according to different civil procedures and may result in different outcomes than a trial by jury would have, including results that could be less favorable to the plaintiffs in any such action. Nevertheless, if this jury trial waiver provision is not permitted by applicable law, an action could proceed under the terms of the deposit agreement with a jury trial. No condition, stipulation or provision of the deposit agreement or ADSs serves as a waiver by any holder or beneficial owner of ADSs or by us or the depositary of compliance with U.S. federal securities laws and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.

As a foreign private issuer, we are exempt from a number of rules under the U.S. securities laws and are permitted to file less information with the SEC than a U.S. company.

We are a foreign private issuer, as defined in the SEC’s rules and regulations and, consequently, we are not subject to all of the disclosure requirements applicable to public companies organized within the United States. For example, we are exempt from certain rules under the Exchange Act that regulate disclosure obligations and procedural requirements related to the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations applicable to a security registered under the Exchange Act, including the U.S. proxy rules under Section 14 of the Exchange Act. In addition, our Management Board and Supervisory Board members are exempt from the reporting and “short-swing” profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act and related rules with respect to their purchases and sales of our securities. Moreover, while we currently make annual and semi-annual filings with

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respect to our listing on Euronext Paris and expect to file financial reports on an annual and semi-annual basis, we will not be required to file periodic reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as U.S. public companies and will not be required to file quarterly reports on Form 10-Q or current reports on Form 8-K under the Exchange Act. In addition, foreign private issuers are not required to file their annual report on Form 20-F until four months after the end of each fiscal year. Accordingly, there will be less publicly available information concerning our company than there would be if we were not a foreign private issuer.

As a foreign private issuer, we are permitted to adopt certain home country practices in relation to corporate governance matters that differ significantly from Nasdaq corporate governance listing standards and these practices may afford less protection to shareholders than they would enjoy if we complied fully with Nasdaq corporate governance listing standards.

As a foreign private issuer listed on Nasdaq, we will be subject to their corporate governance listing standards. However, Nasdaq rules permit foreign private issuers to follow the corporate governance practices of its home country. Some corporate governance practices in France may differ significantly from Nasdaq corporate governance listing standards. We intend to rely on exemptions for foreign private issuers and follow French corporate governance practices in lieu of Nasdaq corporate governance standards, to the extent possible. For example, neither the corporate laws of France nor our bylaws require a majority of our Supervisory Board members to be independent and although the corporate governance code to which we currently refer (the Middlenext code) recommends that, in a widely-held company like ours, a majority of the Supervisory Board members be independent (as construed under such code), this code only applies on a “comply-or-explain” basis and we may in the future either decide not to apply this recommendation or change the corporate code to which we refer. Furthermore, we could include non-independent members of the Supervisory Board as members of our nomination and compensation committee, and our independent Supervisory Board members would not necessarily hold regularly scheduled meetings at which only independent members of the Supervisory Board are present. Currently, we intend to follow home country practice to the maximum extent possible. Therefore, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they otherwise would have under corporate governance listing standards applicable to U.S. domestic issuers. For an overview of our corporate governance practices, see “Management—Corporate Governance Practices.”

We are an “emerging growth company” under the JOBS Act and will be able to avail ourselves of reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies, which could make our ordinary shares ADSs less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, and we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies,” including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act, for complying with new or revised accounting standards. We will not take advantage of the extended transition period provided under Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards.

We cannot predict if investors will find the ordinary shares or ADSs less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find the ordinary shares or ADSs less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for the ordinary shares or ADSs and the price of the ordinary shares or ADSs may be more volatile. We may take advantage of these exemptions until such time that we are no longer an emerging growth company. We would cease to be an emerging growth company upon the earliest to occur of (1) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have more than $1.07 billion in annual revenue; (2) the date we qualify as a “large accelerated filer” with at least $700 million of equity securities held by non-affiliates; (3) the issuance, in any three year period, by our company of more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities held by non-affiliates; and (4) the last day of the fiscal year ending after the fifth anniversary of our initial public offering of the ADSs.

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We may lose our foreign private issuer status in the future, which could result in significant additional cost and expense.

While we currently qualify as a foreign private issuer, the determination of foreign private issuer status is made annually on the last business day of an issuer’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter and, accordingly, our next determination will be made on June 30, 2021. In the future, we would lose our foreign private issuer status if we to fail to meet the requirements necessary to maintain our foreign private issuer status as of the relevant determination date. For example, if more than 50% of our securities are held by U.S. residents and more than 50% of the members of our Management Board or Supervisory Board are residents or citizens of the United States, we could lose our foreign private issuer status. Immediately following the closing of this global offering, approximately 15% of our outstanding ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) will likely be held by U.S. residents (assuming that all purchasers in the U.S. offering are residents of the United States).

The regulatory and compliance costs to us under U.S. securities laws as a U.S. domestic issuer may be significantly more than costs we incur as a foreign private issuer. If we are not a foreign private issuer, we will be required to file periodic reports and registration statements on U.S. domestic issuer forms with the SEC, which are more detailed and extensive in certain respects than the forms available to a foreign private issuer. We would be required under current SEC rules to prepare our financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP, rather than IFRS, and modify certain of our policies to comply with corporate governance practices required of U.S. domestic issuers. Such conversion of our financial statements to U.S. GAAP would involve significant time and cost. In addition, we may lose our ability to rely upon exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements on U.S. stock exchanges that are available to foreign private issuers such as the ones described above and exemptions from procedural requirements related to the solicitation of proxies.

If we are a passive foreign investment company, there could be adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. holders.

Under the Code, a non-U.S. company will be considered a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for any taxable year in which (1) 75% or more of its gross income consists of passive income or (2) 50% or more of the average quarterly value of its assets consists of assets that produce, or are held for the production of, passive income. For purposes of these tests, passive income includes dividends, interest, gains from the sale or exchange of investment property and certain rents and royalties. In addition, for purposes of the above calculations, a non-U.S. corporation that directly or indirectly owns at least 25% by value of the shares of another corporation is treated as if it held its proportionate share of the assets and received directly its proportionate share of the income of such other corporation. If we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. holder (as defined below under “Material United States Federal Income Tax and French Tax Considerations—Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations”) holds our ordinary shares or ADSs, we will continue to be treated as a PFIC with respect to such U.S. holder in all succeeding years during which the U.S. holder owns the ordinary shares or ADSs, regardless of whether we continue to meet the PFIC test described above, unless the U.S. holder makes a specified election once we cease to be a PFIC. If we are classified as a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. holder holds our ordinary shares or ADSs, the U.S. holder may be subject to adverse tax consequences regardless of whether we continue to qualify as a PFIC, including ineligibility for any preferred tax rates on capital gains or on actual or deemed dividends, interest charges on certain taxes treated as deferred, and additional reporting requirements.

We do not believe that we were characterized as a PFIC for the taxable year ending December 31, 2020. The determination of whether we are a PFIC is a fact-intensive determination made on an annual basis applying principles and methodologies that in some circumstances are unclear and subject to varying interpretation. As a result, there can be no assurance regarding if we currently are treated as a PFIC, or may be treated as a PFIC in the future. In addition, for our current and future taxable years, the total value of our assets for PFIC testing purposes may be determined in part by reference to the market price of our ordinary shares or ADSs from time to time, which may fluctuate

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considerably. Under the income test, our status as a PFIC depends on the composition of our income which will depend on the transactions we enter into in the future and our corporate structure. The composition of our income and assets is also affected by how we spend the cash we raise in any offering, including this offering. Even if we determine that we are not a PFIC for a taxable year, there can be no assurance that the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, will agree with our conclusion and that the IRS would not successfully challenge our position. Accordingly, our U.S. counsel expresses no opinion with respect to our PFIC status for any prior, current or future taxable year.

For further discussion of the PFIC rules and the adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences in the event we are classified as a PFIC, see the section of this prospectus titled “Material United States Federal Income Tax and French Tax Considerations—Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations.”

If a United States person is treated as owning at least 10% of our ordinary shares, such holder may be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences.

If a U.S. holder is treated as owning, directly, indirectly or constructively, at least 10% of the value or voting power of our ordinary shares or ADSs, such U.S. holder may be treated as a “United States shareholder” with respect to each “controlled foreign corporation” in our group, if any. Our group currently includes one U.S. subsidiary and, therefore, under current law our current non-U.S. subsidiary and any future newly formed or acquired non-U.S. subsidiaries will be treated as controlled foreign corporations, regardless of whether we are treated as a controlled foreign corporation. A United States shareholder of a controlled foreign corporation may be required to annually report and include in its U.S. taxable income its pro rata share of “Subpart F income,” “global intangible low-taxed income” and investments in U.S. property by controlled foreign corporations, regardless of whether we make any distributions. An individual that is a United States shareholder with respect to a controlled foreign corporation generally would not be allowed certain tax deductions or foreign tax credits that would be allowed to a United States shareholder that is a U.S. corporation. Failure to comply with controlled foreign corporation reporting obligations may subject a United States shareholder to significant monetary penalties. We cannot provide any assurances that we will furnish to any United States shareholder information that may be necessary to comply with the reporting and tax paying obligations applicable under the controlled foreign corporation rules of the Code. U.S. holders should consult their tax advisors regarding the potential application of these rules to their investment in our ordinary shares or ADSs.

Tax authorities may disagree with our positions and conclusions regarding certain tax positions, or may apply existing rules in an unforeseen manner, resulting in unanticipated costs, taxes or non-realization of expected benefits.

A tax authority may disagree with tax positions that we have taken, which could result in increased tax liabilities. For example, the Internal Revenue Service or another tax authority could challenge our allocation of income by tax jurisdiction and the amounts paid between our affiliated companies pursuant to our intercompany arrangements and transfer pricing policies, including amounts paid with respect to our intellectual property development. Similarly, a tax authority could assert that we are subject to tax in a jurisdiction where we believe we have not established a taxable connection, often referred to as a ‘‘permanent establishment’’ under international tax treaties, and such an assertion, if successful, could increase our expected tax liability in one or more jurisdictions.

A tax authority may take the position that material income tax liabilities, interest and penalties are payable by us, for example where there has been a technical violation of contradictory laws and regulations that are relatively new and have not been subject to extensive review or interpretation, in which case we expect that we might contest such assessment. High-profile companies can be particularly vulnerable to aggressive application of unclear requirements. Many companies must negotiate their tax bills with tax inspectors who may demand higher taxes than applicable law appears to provide. Contesting such an assessment may be lengthy and costly and if we were unsuccessful in disputing the assessment, the implications could increase our anticipated effective tax rate, where applicable.

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General Risk Factors

We have broad discretion in the use of the net proceeds from this global offering and may not use them effectively.

We will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds that we receive from this offering as well as of our existing cash, cash equivalents short-term investments and non-current financial assets, and we may spend or invest these funds in a way with which our shareholders or holders of our ADSs disagree. Our failure to apply these funds effectively could harm our business and financial condition. Pending their use, we may invest the net proceeds from the offering in a manner that does not produce income or that loses value. These investments may not yield a favorable return to our investors.

The trading price of our equity securities may be volatile, and purchasers of our ordinary shares or ADSs could incur substantial losses.

It is likely that the price of our ordinary shares and ADSs will be significantly affected by events such as announcements regarding scientific and clinical results concerning product candidates currently being developed by us, our collaboration partners or our main competitors, changes in market conditions related to our sector of activity, announcements of new contracts, technological innovations and collaborations by us or our main competitors, developments concerning intellectual property rights, as well as the development, regulatory approval and commercialization of new products by us or our main competitors and changes in our financial results.

Equity markets are subject to considerable price fluctuations, and often, these movements do not reflect the operational and financial performance of the listed companies concerned. In particular, biotechnology companies’ share prices have been highly volatile and may continue to be highly volatile in the future. As we operate in a single industry, we are especially vulnerable to these factors to the extent that they affect our industry. Fluctuations in the stock market as well as the macro-economic environment could significantly affect the price of our ordinary shares. As a result of this volatility, investors may not be able to sell their ordinary shares or ADSs at or above the price originally paid for the security. The market price for our ordinary shares and ADSs may be influenced by many factors, including:

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In addition, the trading prices of other biopharmaceutical companies have been highly volatile as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 outbreak continues to rapidly evolve. The extent to which the outbreak may impact our business, pre-clinical studies and clinical trials will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence.

These and other market and industry factors may cause the market price and demand for our ordinary shares and ADSs to fluctuate substantially, regardless of our actual operating performance, which may limit or prevent investors from readily selling their ordinary shares or ADSs and may otherwise negatively affect the liquidity of the trading market for the ordinary shares and ADSs. In addition, in the past, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities. This type of litigation, if instituted, could be costly and time consuming and divert management’s attention and resources.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of the ordinary shares or ADSs and their trading volume could decline.

The trading market for the ADSs and ordinary shares depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. As a public company in France since 2013, our equity securities are currently subject to coverage by a number of analysts. If fewer securities or industry analysts cover our company, the trading price for the ADSs and ordinary shares would be negatively impacted. If one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades our equity securities or publishes incorrect or unfavorable research about our business, the price of the ordinary shares and ADSs would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of our company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, or downgrades our securities, demand for the ordinary shares and ADSs could decrease, which could cause the price of the ordinary shares and ADSs or their trading volume to decline.

There has been no prior market for our ADSs and an active and liquid market for our securities may fail to develop, which could harm the market price of the ADSs.

Prior to this global offering, while our ordinary shares have been listed on Euronext Paris since 2013, there has been no public market on a U.S. national securities exchange for our ordinary shares or ADSs. Although our ADSs have been approved for listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, an active trading market for the ADSs may never develop or be sustained following this global offering. The initial offering price of the ADSs was determined through negotiations between us and the underwriters. This offering price may not be indicative of the market price of our ordinary shares or ADSs after this global offering. In the absence of an active trading market for the ADSs, investors may not be able to sell their ADSs at or above the offering price or at the time that they would like to sell.

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus, particularly the sections of this prospectus titled “Summary,” “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Business,” contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than present and historical facts and conditions contained in this prospectus, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy, plans and our objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. When used in this prospectus, the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “can,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “is designed to,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “objective,” “should,” or the negative of these and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:

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You should refer to the section of this prospectus titled “Risk Factors” for a discussion of important factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. As a result of these factors, we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this prospectus will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, if our forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame or at all. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Section 27A of the Securities Act do not protect any forward-looking statements that we make in connection with the global offering.

In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this prospectus, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.

You should read this prospectus and the documents that we reference in this prospectus and have filed with the SEC as exhibits to the Registration Statement of which this prospectus is a part with the understanding that our actual future results, levels of activity, performance and events and circumstances may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

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USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that we will receive net proceeds from the global offering of approximately $     million (€     million), assuming an offering price of $         per ADS (€     per ordinary share), the last reported closing price of our ordinary shares on Euronext Paris on                 , 2021, after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, and assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs). If the underwriters exercise their option in full, we estimate that we will receive net proceeds from the global offering of approximately $     million (€         million) after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

Each $1.00 (€         ) increase or decrease in the assumed initial offering price of $         per ADS (€         per ordinary share) would increase or decrease our net proceeds from the global offering by $         million (€         million), assuming the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs), as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. We may also increase or decrease the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) we are offering. An increase or decrease of 1,000,000 ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us would increase or decrease the net proceeds to us by $         million (€         million), assuming that the assumed initial offering price remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. The actual net proceeds payable to us will adjust based on the actual number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) sold by us, the actual initial offering price and other terms of the global offering determined at pricing.

We currently intend to use the net proceeds we receive from this offering, together with our existing cash and cash equivalents, as follows:

We expect to use the remainder of any net proceeds from the global offering, together with a portion of our cash and cash equivalents, for general corporate purposes. We currently have no specific plans as to how the net proceeds from the global offering will be allocated beyond the uses specified above and therefore management will retain discretion with respect to the use of the net proceeds of the global offering. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire, license or invest in complementary technologies or businesses. However, we currently have no agreements or commitments to complete any such transaction.

As of December 31, 2020, we had cash and cash equivalents of €204.4 million. We believe our cash and cash equivalents, together with the net proceeds of the global offering, will be sufficient to fund our operations through at least                      . We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could use our available capital resources sooner than we expect.

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The expected use of the net proceeds from the global offering and time horizon for the use of our funds represent our intentions based upon our current plans and business conditions. As of the date of this prospectus, we cannot predict with certainty all of the particular uses for the net proceeds to be received upon the completion of the global offering or the amounts that we will actually spend on the uses set forth above. The amounts and timing of our actual expenditures and the extent of clinical development may vary significantly depending on numerous factors, including the progress of our development efforts, the status of and results from pre-clinical studies and any ongoing clinical trials or clinical trials we may commence in the future, as well as any collaborations that we may enter into with third parties for our vaccine candidates and any unforeseen cash needs. As a result, our management will retain broad discretion over the allocation of the net proceeds from the global offering.

Pending our use of the net proceeds from the global offering, we intend to invest the net proceeds in a variety of capital preservation investments, including short-term, investment-grade, interest-bearing instruments.

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DIVIDEND POLICY

We have never declared or paid any dividends on our ordinary shares. Under our credit facility, except with respect to certain permitted dividend distributions, we are generally not permitted to declare or make any dividend with respect to our share capital. We do not anticipate paying cash dividends on our equity securities in the foreseeable future and intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings for use in the operation and expansion of our business, given our state of development.

Subject to the requirements of French law and our bylaws, dividends may only be distributed from our distributable profits, plus any amounts held in our available reserves which are reserves other than legal and statutory and revaluation surplus. Dividend distributions, if any in the future, will be made in euro and converted into U.S. dollars with respect to the ADSs, as provided in the deposit agreement. See “Description of Share Capital” for more information.

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CAPITALIZATION

The following table sets forth our cash and cash equivalents and capitalization as of December 31, 2020 on an actual and on an as adjusted basis to reflect the issuance and sale of                          ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) in the global offering at an assumed initial offering price of €         per ordinary share ($     per ADS), the last reported closing price of our ordinary shares on Euronext Paris on                 , 2021, after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

Our capitalization following the global offering will be adjusted based on the actual initial offering price and other terms of the global offering determined at pricing. The table should be read in conjunction with the information contained in “Use of Proceeds,” “Summary Consolidated Financial Data,” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” as well as our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.

Each €1.00 ($         ) increase or decrease in the assumed initial offering price of €     per ordinary share ($     per ADS), the last reported closing price of our ordinary shares on Euronext Paris on                 , 2021, would increase or decrease each of as adjusted cash and cash equivalents, total shareholders’ equity and total capitalization by approximately €         million ($         million), assuming that the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. We may also increase or decrease the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) we are offering. Each increase or decrease of 1,000,000 ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us would increase or decrease each of as adjusted cash and cash equivalents, total shareholders’ equity and total capitalization by approximately €         million ($         million), assuming that the assumed offering price remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

The number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) that will be outstanding after the global offering is based on 90,950,048 ordinary shares issued as of December 31, 2020 and excludes:

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DILUTION

If you invest in the ordinary shares or ADSs in this global offering, your ownership interest will be diluted to the extent of the difference between the offering price per ordinary share or ADS paid by you and the as adjusted net tangible book value per share after the global offering. Our net tangible book value as of December 31, 2020 was €42.0 million ($51.4 million based on the exchange rate of €1.00 = $1.2230 as of December 31, 2020), or €0.46 per ordinary share (equivalent to $0.57 per ADS). Net tangible book value per share is determined by dividing (i) our total assets less our intangible assets and our total liabilities by (ii) the number of our ordinary shares outstanding as of December 31, 2020.

After giving effect to our sale of                          ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) in the global offering, assuming an offering price of €         per ordinary share ($     per ADS), the last reported closing price of our ordinary shares on Euronext Paris on                 , 2021, and after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, our as adjusted net tangible book value at December 31, 2020 would have been €         million ($         million), or €         per ordinary share (equivalent to $     per ADS). This amount represents an immediate increase in net tangible book value of €         per ordinary share ($     per ADS) to our existing shareholders and an immediate dilution in net tangible book value of €     per ordinary share ($         per ADS) to new investors.

The following table illustrates this dilution on a per ordinary share and per ADS basis:

Each €1.00 ($         ) increase or decrease in the assumed initial offering price of €         per ordinary share ($     per ADS), the last reported closing price of our ordinary shares on Euronext Paris on                 , 2021, would increase or decrease our as adjusted net tangible book value by approximately €         million ($         million), or approximately €         per ordinary share ($         per ADS), and the dilution to new investors participating in this global offering would be approximately €         per ordinary share ($         per ADS), assuming that the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. We may also increase or decrease the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) we are offering. An increase in the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us by 1,000,000 would increase the as adjusted net tangible book value by approximately €         million ($         million), or €         per ordinary share ($         per ADS), and the dilution to new investors participating in this global offering would be €         per ordinary share ($         per ADS), assuming that the initial offering price remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Similarly, a decrease in the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us by 1,000,000 would decrease the as adjusted net tangible book value by approximately €         million ($         million), or €         per ordinary share ($         per ADS), and the dilution to new investors participating in this global offering would be €         per

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ordinary share ($         per ADS), assuming that the initial offering price remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. The as adjusted information discussed above is illustrative only and will be adjusted based on the actual offering price, the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us and other terms of this global offering determined at pricing.

If the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase                          additional ordinary shares (which may be in the form of ADSs), the as adjusted net tangible book value after the global offering would be €         per ordinary share ($         per ADS), the increase in the as adjusted net tangible book value to existing shareholders would be €         per ordinary share ($         per ADS), and the dilution to new investors participating in this global offering would be €     per ordinary share ($         per ADS).

The following table sets forth consideration paid to us in cash for ordinary shares purchased from us by our existing shareholders (translated into U.S. dollars at an exchange rate of €1.00 = $        ) and by new investors participating in this global offering based on an assumed offering price of €             per ordinary share ($             per ADS), the last reported closing price of our ordinary shares on Euronext Paris on                 , 2021, and before deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase                          additional ordinary shares (which may be in the form of ADSs) in full, the number of ordinary shares held by the existing shareholders after this global offering would be reduced to      % of the total number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) outstanding after the global offering, and the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) held by new investors participating in this global offering would increase to     % of the total number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) outstanding after the global offering.

The number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) that will be outstanding after the global offering is based on 90,950,048 ordinary shares issued as of December 31, 2020 and excludes:

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SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA

The following selected consolidated statement of income (loss) data for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements as of and for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 included elsewhere in this prospectus. Our audited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.

Our historical results and the results for the year ended December 31, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any periods in the future. You should read this summary data together with our financial statements and related notes beginning on page F-1 of this prospectus, as well as the section of this prospectus titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the other financial information included elsewhere in this prospectus.

Selected Statement of Income (Loss) Data:

Consolidated Statement of Financial Position Data:

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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF

FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this prospectus, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business and related financing, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, including those factors set forth in the “Risk Factors” section of this prospectus, our actual results could differ materially from the results described in or implied by these forward-looking statements.

Our audited consolidated financial statements as of and for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IASB. The audit report from Deloitte & Associés and PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit on the consolidated financial statements includes an explanatory paragraph referring to the adoption of IFRS 16 Leases.

For ease of presentation, numbers have been rounded and, where indicated, are presented in thousands of Euros. Calculations, however, are based on exact figures. Therefore, the sum of the numbers in a column of a table may not conform to the total figure displayed in the column.

Overview

We are a specialty vaccine company focused on the prevention of infectious diseases with significant unmet medical need through the development and commercialization of prophylactic vaccines. We take a specialized and highly targeted approach to vaccine development, beginning with the identification of deadly and debilitating infectious diseases that lack a prophylactic vaccine solution and for which there are limited therapeutic treatment options. We then apply our unique deep understanding of the science of vaccines, including our expertise across multiple vaccine approaches, as well as our established capabilities around vaccine development, to develop a prophylactic solution to these diseases. We have leveraged our expertise to both successfully commercialize two vaccines and to rapidly advance a broad range of vaccine candidates into and through the clinic, including candidates against Lyme disease, the chikungunya virus and COVID-19.

Our clinical portfolio is composed of a number of highly differentiated vaccine candidates that are designed to provide preventative solutions to diseases with high unmet need. Our lead program, VLA15, is a Phase 2 vaccine candidate targeting Borrelia, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, under development in collaboration with Pfizer, and it is the only active vaccine candidate against Lyme disease currently in clinical development. VLA15 targets the six most prevalent serotypes, or variations, of Borrelia in the United States, where approximately 476,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year and in Europe, where at least a further 200,000 cases occur annually. Our clinical portfolio also includes VLA1553, the first vaccine candidate in Phase 3 clinical trials targeting the chikungunya virus, which has spread to more than 100 countries and infected more than 3 million people in the Americas since first arriving there in 2013. We believe that VLA1553 is differentiated from other clinical stage chikungunya vaccine candidates since it is the only candidate that targets long-term protection with a single administration.

We have also advanced VLA2001, a highly purified, inactivated and adjuvanted vaccine candidate against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, into Phase 1/2 clinical trials in order to address the urgent, global need for billions of doses of vaccines. VLA2001 is the only inactivated vaccine candidate for COVID-19 currently in clinical trials in Europe. We believe that our vaccine, if approved, could offer benefits in terms of safety, cost, ease of manufacture and distribution compared to currently approved vaccines and, as an inactivated virus vaccine, could be adapted to offer protection against mutations of the virus. In addition to these advantages, we believe our flexible approach to the clinical and manufacturing development of VLA2001 will facilitate our ability to meet the needs of

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future customers, including playing a key role in providing supply for any potential booster programs. In September 2020, we entered into a collaboration with the government of the United Kingdom, pursuant to which the government ordered 60 million doses of VLA2001 for delivery in the second half of 2021 (with a delivery schedule now extending into the first quarter of 2022) and 40 million doses for delivery later in 2022 and has options to order 90 million additional doses for supply between 2023 and 2025. If the options are exercised in full, the contract could generate revenue of up to €1.4 billion.

We have already successfully licensed and commercialized a portfolio of traveler vaccines, which is composed of IXIARO (also marketed as JESPECT in Australia and New Zealand), indicated for the prevention of Japanese encephalitis in travelers and military personnel, and DUKORAL, indicated for the prevention of cholera and, in some countries, prevention of diarrhea caused by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, or ETEC, the leading causes of travelers’ diarrhea. All references to IXIARO in this Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations include both IXIARO and JESPECT, unless stated otherwise.

We are led by a highly dedicated international Management Board under the supervision of a Supervisory Board that helps guide business strategies and the direction of our business. To receive guidance and expertise with respect to research and development, we formed a Scientific Advisory Board in 2019.

We are a public company listed on Euronext Paris that was formed in 2013 through the merger of Intercell, an Austrian vaccine biotech company listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange, and Vivalis, a French biotech company listed on Euronext Paris. We have assembled a team of experts with deep scientific, clinical and business expertise in biotechnology and specifically in vaccine development, manufacturing and commercialization. Our senior executive team has more than 100 years of combined experience spent working at industry leaders such as Novartis, Chiron, Acambis, GlaxoSmithKline and Daiichi Sankyo.

Since our inception as Vivalis in 1998, our operations have focused on organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, establishing and maintaining our intellectual property portfolio, establishing our commercial infrastructure, growing our commercial portfolio, establishing and advancing our manufacturing capabilities and conducting pre-clinical studies and clinical trials. As of December 31, 2020, we had €204.4 million in cash and cash equivalents.

Our operating losses were €55.1 million and €0.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Our net losses were €64.4 million and €1.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. We expect to continue to incur significant operating expenses and net losses for the foreseeable future.

Factors Affecting Our Results

We believe that our financial performance has been and for the foreseeable future will continue to be primarily driven by the factors discussed below. While many of these factors present opportunities for our business, they also pose challenges that we must successfully address in order to sustain our growth and improve our results of operations. Our ability to successfully address the factors below is subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described under the heading “Risk Factors” included elsewhere in this prospectus.

Revenues

We principally derive our revenues from the sale of our commercialized travel vaccines, DUKORAL and IXIARO, in their respective markets and from the sale of third-party products. We also derive revenues from partnerships related to our vaccine candidates, as well as from collaborations, services and licensing agreement and by offering our technologies and services to third parties. We report revenues under three segments: commercialized products, vaccine candidates and technologies and services. See “—Financial Operations Overview—Segment Information” for additional information on our segment reporting.

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Product Sales of IXIARO, DUKORAL and Third-party Products

Product sales of IXIARO and DUKORAL represented in aggregate 56.0% and 91.8% of our revenues for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 respectively. In 2019, total revenue excluded the effect of €10.7 million negative revenue related to the June 2019 mutual agreement to terminate our Strategic Alliance Agreement, or SAA, with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals SA, or GSK, originally agreed between Novartis and Intercell (predecessor companies of GSK and Valneva, respectively) as further discussed below. We primarily sell IXIARO in the United States, Canada and Germany and DUKORAL in Canada. In addition, we generate revenues by leveraging our existing sales and marketing infrastructure to sell third-party products. Revenues from sales of third-party products represented 3.8% and 2.8 % of our revenues for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, excluding the effect of the SAA termination agreement for the 2019 period. In June 2020, we entered into a distribution agreement with Bavarian Nordic, pursuant to which we agreed to commercialize Bavarian Nordic’s marketed vaccines for rabies and tick-borne encephalitis, leveraging our commercial infrastructure in Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Austria. This agreement had no material financial impact on the consolidated financial statement as of and for the year ended December 31, 2020.

Sales trends in travel vaccines are primarily driven by travel volume to endemic regions, national travel advisories, awareness about the illness and the perception of risk by health practitioners and tourists. A COVID-19-driven travel reduction accounted for a material reduction in our revenues for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization or UNWTO, Asia and the Pacific, the first region to suffer the impact of the pandemic and the region with the highest level of travel restrictions still in place to date, experienced an 84% decrease in arrivals from international flights from January to December 2020.

While COVID-19 has adversely affected sales of our travel vaccines to the general public, sales of IXIARO to the U.S. Government Department of Defense, or DLA, which purchases our Japanese encephalitis vaccine for military personnel being deployed to endemic regions, have remained significant over the periods presented herein. In September 2020, DLA awarded us a new contract for the supply of IXIARO. The terms of the agreement contemplate an initial base year followed by two option years, each with a range of minimum and maximum potential dose orders. The current base year has a minimum value of approximately $53 million for 370,000 doses, and the option years have minimum values of $46 million for 320,000 doses and $36 million for 250,000 doses, respectively, if DLA exercises those options. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, 52.6% and 37.0%, respectively of our total product sales were from sales of IXIARO to the DLA.

Revenues from Collaboration, Licensing and Services

We derive revenues from collaboration and partnership agreements. Our primary source of collaboration revenues is through our research collaboration and license agreement with Pfizer Inc., entered into in April 2020, to co-develop and commercialize our Lyme vaccine candidate, VLA15. As partial consideration for the license grant under the agreement, in June 2020 Pfizer paid us a one-time upfront payment of $130 million. Under the terms of the agreement, we and Pfizer will each contribute towards development costs, and Pfizer is obligated to pay us up to $178 million in development milestones and low double-digit tiered royalties starting at 19% on net sales of licensed products, subject to specified offsets and reductions. As of December 31, 2020, we have recognized €81.9 million as discounted refund liabilities. In addition, €31.6 million was recognized as revenues from collaboration, licensing and services. €2.8 million in contract costs are included in other assets as of December 31, 2020.

In September 2020, we entered into a collaboration with the government of the United Kingdom, pursuant to which the government ordered 60 million doses of VLA2001 for delivery in the second half of 2021 (delivery now extending into the first quarter of 2022). In January 2021, the UK Government exercised its option to order 40 million doses of VLA2001 for supply in 2022. This brings the total volume of VLA2001 ordered to date by UK Government to 100 million doses and the UK Government retains options over a further 90 million doses for supply

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between 2023 and 2025. If VLA2001 is approved and the options are exercised in full, the contract has the potential to generate aggregate revenue of up to €1.4 billion. Our inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is expected to have a two dose regimen. In 2020, no revenue was recognized as a result of this collaboration. As of December 31, 2020, we booked €87.0 million in contract liabilities and €20.9 million in refund liabilities.

We also derive revenues from our technologies and services. Revenues from our technologies consists of revenues from our EB66 cell line, which is derived from duck embryonic stem cells and provides an alternative to the use of chicken eggs for large scale manufacturing of human and veterinary vaccines, and our IC31 vaccine adjuvant, which is a synthetic adjuvant targeting antigens to improve immune response and has been licensed to several pharmaceutical companies. Services revenues consist of research and development services we provide to third parties, including process and assay development, production and testing of clinical trial material.

Key Cost Drivers

Research and Development

We generate a significant amount of research and development expenses due to the nature of our business. Research and development expenses were €84.5 million and €38.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Research and development expenses generally track development of our underlying product candidate portfolio. Investment in research and development is required to support advancing programs through increasingly expensive stages of clinical development.

We anticipate research and development costs in 2021 will continue to increase, as we recently commenced the Phase 3 clinical trial for our chikungunya vaccine (VLA1553) and our ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial for our Lyme vaccine candidate (VLA15). Under our agreement with Pfizer, we are obligated to contribute 30% of all ongoing and future Lyme vaccine candidate development costs through completion of the development program expected in 2025.

Marketing and Distribution

We have developed an established commercial infrastructure that is dedicated to promoting and selling our products and educating physicians and travelers about our products and the diseases they target. We are continually investing in our commercial infrastructure and have identified markets where we can increase our sales and marketing efforts and market penetration. We have also been able to leverage our commercial infrastructure for third-party product distribution.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, including through December 2020, travel costs for our sales team have significantly decreased, and we have implemented a variety of cost containment measures such as reducing the advertising and promotional spend as well as reducing staffing across most of our commercial entities. We believe that ultimately, our investment in commercial infrastructure will yield higher revenues compared to outsourcing commercialization.

Cost of Goods and Services

Historically, manufacturing costs have experienced limited cost increases. Manufacturing costs comprise site infrastructure, employees to operate the manufacturing and the bill of materials. Incremental cost increase is driven by the variable cost in the bill of materials. We plan to manufacture our chikungunya vaccine candidate at our facilities in Livingston. We anticipate we will need limited additional infrastructure and employees for this program, and that we will incur relatively low raw materials costs.

We have begun manufacturing our COVID-19 vaccine candidate at our facilities in Livingston, Scotland. As part of our broader COVID-19 response, we plan to further invest in our manufacturing facilities in Livingston, Scotland and Solna, Sweden. The UK Government is obligated to provide us with up-front investments to fund certain manufacturing-related assets (related to the expansion of our Livingston, Scotland facility) over the life of the project, subject to our continued supply of product in accordance with the terms of the UK Supply Agreement.

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General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses have increased as we have become a more complex organization, requiring more corporate support. We have also seen an increase in stock-based compensation expense as we have increased our headcount and the issuance of options to employees.

Grants

We seek grants from governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations to partially offset our increasing research and development costs. Grant income, which is recorded in other income, increased from €1.9 million to €7.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 as compared to the prior year period. In the year ended December 31, 2020 we received grants related to the COVID-19 pandemic situation from various governments. In July 2019, we entered into a funding agreement with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI. Under this funding agreement, we are eligible to receive up to $23.4 million (paid in a series of six-month tranches) for vaccine manufacturing and late-stage clinical development of a single-dose live attenuated vaccine against chikungunya (VLA1553) in return for equitable access to project results. We are obligated to pay CEPI up to $7.0 million in commercial and related milestones. See “Business—Material Agreements—CEPI Funding Agreement” for more details on the terms of this grant. We plan to continue evaluating and pursuing grant opportunities.

International Operations and Foreign Currency Exchange Risks

We operate on a global basis with facilities, sales and activities throughout the world; and our global operations subject our financial results to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. Because a substantial part of sales are generated in the United States for IXIARO, with production costs in the British Pound, or GBP, and in Canada for DUKORAL, with production costs in the Swedish Krona, or SEK, we are exposed to foreign exchange risks, principally with respect to the U.S. Dollar, or USD, GBP, SEK and the Canadian dollar, or CAD. We have entered into currency option contracts to limit the risk of foreign exchange losses. However, our results of operations continue to be impacted by exchange rate fluctuations.

Impact of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a number of significant impacts on our business since March 2020. Notably, we initiated development of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate and announced a COVID-19 vaccine partnership with the UK Government. However, COVID-19 has adversely impacted sales of our travel vaccines to the general public, with travel to endemic areas significantly reduced compared to 2019 and our sales and marketing team unable to travel. In addition, as a result of COVID-19, for the year ended December 31, 2020, €7.4 million of the write-down we included in our income statement was due to lower sales expectations and limited shelf life of finished goods. As a result of a related manufacturing stoppage for IXIARO and DUKORAL in the third quarter of 2020, idle capacity costs were not capitalized. We have continued to incur employee-related expense, though sales and marketing employee productivity is significantly decreased. However, we have been able to repurpose many of our highly-skilled employees to work on our COVID-19 response program. The COVID-19 pandemic is resulting in travel and other restrictions to reduce the spread of the disease, including government orders across the globe, which, among other things, direct individuals to shelter at their places of residence, direct businesses and governmental agencies to cease non-essential operations at physical locations, prohibit certain non-essential gatherings, and order cessation of non-essential travel. The effects of government-imposed quarantines and work-from-home policies, including the evolving nature of such policies, may still negatively impact productivity and production.

Sales in 2021 are expected to continue to be impacted due to the significant reduction in international travel following the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In its December 2020 report, the UNWTO predicted that international travel, as measured by international arrivals, would rebound in 2021, based on the assumptions of a gradual reversal of

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the pandemic, the rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine, significant improvement in traveler confidence and major lifting of travel restrictions by the middle of 2021, as well as a large pent-up demand after months of closed borders and travel bans. Recovery of international travel is forecasted by leading international travel organizations, such as the International Air Transport Association and the UNWTO, to begin in 2021 and to recover to 2019 demand levels by mid-2023 to end of 2024. If international travel does not resume as quickly or as much as planned, our revenues will continue to be severely affected, and we may not be able to complete the development of our vaccine candidates without additional financing. Site initiation and subject enrollment have been and may be further delayed due to prioritization of hospital resources toward the COVID-19 pandemic, and some subjects may not be able or willing to comply with clinical trial protocols if quarantines impede subject movement or interrupt healthcare services. The initiation of Phase 3 clinical trial for VLA 1553 (chikungunya) was delayed due to the impact of COVID-19. We continue to closely monitor how the pandemic and related response measures are affecting our business.

For more information as to the risks associated with COVID-19, see the section of this prospectus titled “Risk Factors.”

Financial Operations Overview

Segment Information

Operating segments are reported in a manner consistent with internal reporting, provided to the chief operating decision maker. We have identified the Management Board as our chief operating decision maker, or CODM. The Management Board reviews the consolidated operating results regularly to make decisions about resources and to assess overall performance.

The Management Board primarily uses a measure of operating profit/(loss) to assess the performance of the operating segments. In addition, the Management Board also receives information about the segments’ product sales on a monthly basis.

The individual segments consist of following:

As of January 1, 2020, we changed our internal reporting process and amended the following allocation rule: general and administrative costs previously reported under “corporate overhead” have been fully allocated to the three operational segments based on estimated level of activities supporting the three segments. 56.0% of previously unallocated general and administrative costs were allocated to commercialized products, 36.5% to vaccine candidates and 7.5% to technologies and services using a combination of revenues and full-time employees as the basis to allocate costs to the segments. Marketing and distribution costs previously reported under corporate overhead have been fully allocated to the commercialized products. This change was made to reflect the way our chief decision makers (CODM) monitor the performance of the segments. The operating profit (loss) is the measure that is reported to the CODM. Segment reporting information for earlier periods has been restated to conform to these changes.

Revenue

Our product revenue is primarily derived from the sale of our commercialized products IXIARO and DUKORAL in their approved markets and sales of third-party products pursuant to distribution partnerships. We distribute

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products both directly and through the use of third-party distributors. We primarily sell IXIARO in the United States (primarily to U.S. military personnel being deployed to endemic areas), Canada and Germany. We primarily sell DUKORAL in Canada.

Our revenue from collaboration, licensing and services consists of milestone payments, upfront licensing payments and reimbursement of development expenses. Certain of these payments are initially recorded on our statement of financial position and subsequently recognized as revenue in accordance with our accounting policy as described further under “—Critical Accounting Estimates and Judgments” and Note 5.3 to our consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2020 included elsewhere in this prospectus.

We generate revenues from licensing and service agreements for our product candidates and proprietary technologies. We contract with third parties to provide a variety of services such as manufacturing services, leases arrangements, research licenses, commercial licenses and research and development services. The terms of such licenses include license fees payable as initial fees, annual license maintenance fees and fees to be paid upon achievement of milestones, as well as license option fees and fees for the performance of research services. In addition, our licensing arrangements generally provide for royalties payable on the licensee’s future sales of products developed within the scope of the license agreement.

Operating Expenses

Cost of Goods and Services

Cost of goods and services consist primarily of personnel costs, costs for materials, royalties and costs for third-party services, as well as building and energy costs, depreciation and amortization, and other direct and allocated costs incurred in connection with the production of our products. Costs of goods and services also include costs of product sales from inventory produced in the prior year, idle production costs and costs related to expired and faulty products which have been written off. Cost of goods and services also include costs relating to our revenue-generating collaboration, services and licensing agreements.

Research and Development Expenses

The nature of our business and the primary focus of our activities generate a significant amount of research and development expenses. Research and development expenses include the costs associated with research and development conducted by us or for us by outside contractors, research partners or clinical study partners, and expenses associated with research and development carried out by us in connection with strategic collaboration and licensing agreements. Our research and development expenses are primarily incurred as a result of the following activities:

The costs of the above activities driving research and development expenses comprise the following categories:

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The substantial majority of our direct expenses incurred for the year ended December 31, 2020, such as for CROs, and other contracted research and development activities, as well as for raw materials, relate to our Lyme vaccine candidate (VLA15), our chikungunya vaccine candidate (VLA1553) and our COVID-19 vaccine candidate (VLA2001). We also incur indirect research and development expenses primarily related to facilities, energy and office costs as well as the cost of research and development personnel.

Research and development expenses are generally recognized in the period in which they are incurred. However, research and development expenses incurred in connection with product candidates are capitalized and recorded as intangible assets when the following criteria are met: the technical feasibility of completing the asset has been achieved so that it will be available for use or sale; the intention to complete the asset and use or sell it; the ability to use or sell the asset; the asset will generate probable future economic benefits and demonstrate the existence of a market or the usefulness of the asset if it is to be used internally; the availability of adequate technical, financial and other resources to complete the development and to use or sell it; and the ability to reliably measure the expenditure attributable to the intangible asset. As of December 31, 2020, we had capitalized research and development expenses recorded as intangible assets in an aggregate amount of €1.7 million.

Research and development activities are a key component of our business model. The successful development and commercialization of a product candidate involves significant costs, which may vary from year to year depending upon factors such as the progress of clinical trials and other research and development activities, the timing of regulatory approvals, the duration of the regulatory approvals process and the possibility of, and potential expenses related to, filing, prosecuting, defending or enforcing any patent claims or other intellectual property or proprietary rights. The most expensive stages in the regulatory approval process in the United States and the European Union are late-stage clinical trials, which are the longest and largest trials conducted during the approval process. The significant cost factors in our clinical trials include manufacturing compounds for product candidates, organizing clinical trials, including participant enrollment, production and testing of product candidates involved in clinical trials, and laboratory testing and analysis of clinical parameters. By contrast, pre-clinical research and development expenses primarily depend on the number of scientific staff employed. We expect that our research and development expenses will continue to increase in the foreseeable future as we initiate and progress clinical trials for our vaccine candidates.

Marketing and Distribution Expenses

Marketing and distribution expenses consist primarily of expenses relating to marketing and distribution personnel, including salaries, social security contributions, share-based compensation expense and other employee-related expenses, advertising, media and public relations expenses, warehousing and distribution costs, costs related to third-party services and other direct and allocated expenses incurred in connection with our own commercial sales infrastructure, business development and other marketing and distribution activities. Driven by our chikungunya vaccine candidate having progressed into Phase 3 clinical development in 2020, we expect incremental costs for preparation of market access and launch activities of this vaccine during the years to come.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of non-research and development personnel-related costs, including salaries, social security contributions, share-based compensation expense and other employee-related expenses for general management, finance, legal, human resources, investor relations and other administrative and operational functions, fees for professional services, such as consulting, legal and financial services, information technology and facility-related costs. These costs relate to the operation of our business and are unrelated to our research and development function or any individual product candidate program.

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We anticipate that our general and administrative expenses will increase as we grow our support functions for the expected increase in our research and development and manufacturing activities. We also anticipate increased expenses associated with being a public company in the United States, including costs related to audit, legal, regulatory and tax-related services associated with maintaining compliance with U.S. exchange listing and Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, requirements, director and officer insurance premiums and investor relations costs. In particular, we will need to incur additional accounting expenses to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in the United States that will require us to test the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting.

Other Income (Expenses)

Our other income results principally from grants and research tax credits. We expect to continue to be eligible for these tax credits and subsidies for so long as we incur eligible expenses.

Grants

Grants from governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations are recognized where there is reasonable assurance that the grant will be received and that we will comply with all conditions. In 2019, we entered into a funding agreement with CEPI. Under this funding agreement, we are eligible to receive up to $23.4 million (paid in a series of six-month tranches) for vaccine manufacturing and late-stage clinical development of a single-dose, live attenuated vaccine against chikungunya (VLA1553). We will be obligated to repay up to $7.0 million to CEPI if and when certain commercial and related milestones are reached. See “Business—Material Agreements—CEPI Funding Agreement” for more details on the terms of this grant. The funds we receive from CEPI are accounted for in accordance with IAS 20 Accounting for Government Grants and Disclosure of Government Assistance, and presented as other income within operating income in our statement of operations.

Research Tax Credits

We benefit from Austrian research tax credit and French tax credit (known as Crédit d’Impôt Recherche, or CIR). The qualifications for the Austrian and French tax credits are similar, as both the Austrian and French tax authorities encourage companies to conduct technical and scientific research. To be eligible, companies need to demonstrate that they have expenses that meet certain required criteria, including research expenses located within the European Union. The main differences between the Austrian and French tax credits are the applicable percentage of and the basis for the tax credit.

For the CIR, companies need to demonstrate that expenses taken into account for the calculation of the CIR only involve certain eligible research and development expenses. Subcontracting expenses are limited to an amount equal to €10 million.

The main characteristics of the CIR are the following:

For the Austrian tax credit, there is no limit for subcontracting expenses, but contract research expenses are limited to €1.0 million per year. The Austrian research tax credit results in a cash inflow from the tax authorities paid to us and is not included in the determination of the corporate income tax.

We have concluded that research tax credits in both countries meet the definition of a government grant, as defined in IAS 20, Accounting for Government Grants and Disclosure of Government Assistance, and, as a result, it has been classified as other income within operating income in our statement of operations.

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Finance Income (Expenses)

Finance income relates primarily to interest income received from cash and cash equivalents deposits. Our cash and cash equivalents have been deposited primarily into cash accounts and term deposit accounts with short maturities and therefore generate only a modest amount of interest income.

Finance expenses relate primarily to interest expense paid to banks and government agencies and on other loans as well as to interest expense on lease liabilities.

We also incur foreign exchange gains and losses related to our international operations, primarily with respect to the U.S. Dollar, the British Pound, the Swedish Krona, and the Canadian Pound, which amounts are recorded as finance income or expenses. Furthermore, finance income or expenses include fair value gains or losses, respectively, on derivative financial instruments relating to various foreign currency option and forward contracts, which we entered into to limit the risk of foreign currency losses on expected future cash flows.

Results from Investments in Associates

We hold a 48.9% equity interest in BliNK Biomedical SAS, or BliNK, a private company not listed on a stock exchange. While we intend to retain a substantial ownership interest in the entity, BliNK is run as an independent business by its own management team. We do not have control nor joint-control over BliNK, but rather hold a significant influence in BliNK in accordance with IAS 28.3, and therefore the investment is recorded using the equity method according to IAS 28.16.

Income Tax

Income tax income or expense reflects our current income tax, as well as our deferred tax income (expense).

Results of Operations

Overview

Results of Operations—Consolidated

Our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 are summarized in the table below.

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Results of Operations—By Segment

The following table presents our results of operations by segment for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019: