Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Bavarian Nordic's Half Year Report conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Rolf Sørensen, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Yeah. Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone. Good afternoon, and good morning to the rest of you, and welcome to our Q2 conference call. My name is Rolf Sørensen, Vice President, Investor Relations, and with me here on this call, I have Paul Chaplin, President and CEO, and JC May, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, and Henrik Juuel, Executive Vice President and CFO. We have, as many times before, have had a very, very busy quarter behind us and to go through this. We also have Q&A, of course, follow the presentation. Before we go through this, I just have to go through this brief disclaimer. This presentation includes forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are outside our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed. Forward-looking statements include our short-term objectives and opportunities, financial expectations for the full year, as well as statements concerning our plans, objectives, goals, future events, performance, and other information that is not historical information. We undertake no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances after the date made, except as required by law. By this, I will hand the first presentation over to you, Paul. Thanks, Rolf, and welcome everyone to our half-year results. If you turn to slide five, I can walk you through some of the high-level results. Obviously, today, we are reporting record results for Bavarian Nordic. More than DKK 3.2 billion in revenue, which is almost 300% increase compared to last year. This is across the board. We're seeing really strong growth in all our products, in all our territories, but I'll leave the details to the other speakers to walk through. That has obviously resulted in a very strong EBITDA of DKK 1.2 billion. Again, another record-breaking performance for us. Obviously that is generating an extremely strong cash position of DKK 1.4 billion. Really strong performance, driven by very strong growth in the markets, but also our brand performance. As I said, I think I will leave the details to JC and also Henrik Juuel to walk through, but we're extremely proud that we're coming out with these record numbers, and it really shows that we have a very strong base business now, but also moving forward. If you go to the next slide, slide six, we've obviously had an extremely busy summer reporting a number of phase III results, and I'll walk you through each one and talk about the impact. On RSV, unfortunately, despite the fact that we could show signs of efficacy in the phase III, that efficacy was lower than that of the competition, and for that reason, we are discontinuing the program. It's a disappointment, obviously, for everyone in the company that's worked so hard on this program over the years, for various reasons, it is a setback, the future of BN and the future growth story of BN didn't rely solely on RSV. We acknowledge it's a setback, not only for the company, but for many of the investors. At the end of the day, unfortunately, these things do happen in, in R&D, and we, we need to dust ourselves down and move on. On COVID-19, we read out our phase III in June, and here we had a successful phase III positive readout, in that we were able to show that ABNCoV2 was safe, but also was equal in terms of the efficacy, in terms of the immune responses induced, as Comirnaty, which is the, I would say, the main RNA-based vaccine that was used to control the pandemic. Now, obviously, this is a successful phase III that we've pre-agreed with all the regulators. Unfortunately, the disease has progressed, also the regulatory hurdles for licensure have also moved since we started this trial. It's probably, while the endpoint is a successful one, it's more important to look at how immunogenic or efficacious ABNCoV2 is against some of the more distant variants that are currently circulating. That is data that we're currently generating, and hopefully we'll be able to communicate the future path for this program in the coming weeks, maybe the coming months. Before I move on, I just want to say a few things about COVID-19. As the pandemic began, we scoured the field for a, a, a vaccine candidate that we thought could go and, and, and play a role during the pandemic. We identified this unproven platform as one that we thought was attractive, one that we believed could go on to show to be safe and effective, and we licensed the technology from the AdaptVac. At that time, we were really looking for public funding. Just like every other company that has developed a COVID vaccine, we were looking for public funds simply because it was very unclear what the market would be, what the market would grow into, and what the regulatory challenges would be. We were really looking for public funding, and we were very fortunate that we secured funding from the Danish Ministry of Health, which has allowed us to bring the product all the way from the bench to now this conclusion of phase III. The purpose of that funding was really to show that this unproven platform could really demonstrate that it was safe and effective in people, and was equal to the current vaccines that had already been approved. That is what we've demonstrated. Although we don't know what the clear path is moving forward, right now, what we see, this is a successful program and a successful partnership with the Danish Ministry of Health, because we have now shown that ABNCoV2, or the viral-like platform technology that we licensed, has utility in future pandemics. All the safety, all the efficacy, and all the manufacturing know-how could be used in future pandemics. As I said, we are eagerly awaiting the next step in terms of data and discussions with the regulators in the coming weeks. The third program that we read out was chikungunya. This was also a program that was part of the recent acquisition from Emergent BioSolutions. We identified this program as being or having the potential to be the best-in-class chikungunya vaccine, and that has borne out to be true. Two phase IIIs have read out, one in an elderly adult population and one in an adolescent and adult population, both showing that this candidate vaccine, also based on a virus-like particle, is highly immunogenic and has a very good safety profile. The reason we believe it's the best-in-class vaccine is, not only is it highly immunogenic, it's extremely fast-acting, with the same seroconversion rates at week two and very, very high seroconversion rates at week one, which is a clear advantage over the competition, and one that we believe now puts it as the best-in-class chikungunya vaccine. We're currently completing the manufacturing validation in our new site in Bern and looking to file this chikungunya vaccine next year. If you go to the next slide, slide seven. Just to talk a little bit about the integration. We completed this acquisition from Emergent BioSolutions that has now created the world's largest travel vaccine franchise. It had two commercial assets, Vivotif, Vaxchora, also the chikungunya asset, but it also came with facilities and employees, both in terms of manufacturing in Bern and employees in R&D in San Diego. The integration we said would take 12 months. We would take it in stages. Currently, we've, we've, we've integrated the commercial activities. I'll leave to JC to talk about how excited he is about these two assets moving forward. In terms of manufacturing, it was a standalone, highly successful facility. It's still a standalone, highly successful facility. We are currently, as I said, completing the manufacturing activities for chikungunya. In terms of R&D, we've begun the integration. We've reduced some of the operating costs there by about DKK 50 million moving forward. You know, the integration is going according to plan and according to time, so everything is operating incredibly smoothly. Before I hand over to JC, if you go to slide eight, I just want to talk a little bit about the strategy and the investment case moving forward, because we get a lot of questions, obviously, with the disappointment of RSV, about where is the Bavarian Nordic heading. Before I talk about where we're heading, I want to talk a little bit about where we've come from. Before 2020, we were an R&D-based company. We had a manufacturing footprint of producing one product, which is our smallpox vaccine, and we sold directly to governments, and frankly, had maybe two customers. This was highly profitable business. It allowed a break-even result on most years, but the revenue was lumpy. It was unpredictable because it was based on government contracts, and it was difficult for analysts and investors to really understand the growth and the growth behind the commercial ambitions that we had, given that we were selling directly to governments. At that point, we decided to change strategy and add a commercial arm to try and create a fully integrated vaccines company. We wanted to add to the top line with assets that had predictable revenues, more predictable revenues, more predictable growth. To do that, we had to build up a commercial organization from scratch. We had to build up a worldwide distribution network from scratch. We had to transfer the market authorizations for the two assets, for rabies and TBE, in a record industry time. I remember in 2020, when we announced the deal. There was initial excitement, but a lot of concern about whether Bavarian Nordic could really deliver. Could you really build up a commercial organization? Could you really transfer these market transfers on time? Could you execute on the strategy, which was our belief that in our hands, with our focus, we could turn around these assets and show that we could do more with them than our predecessors. Obviously today, we've just announced our record results, in part, due to the travel assets. We have demonstrated that we were able to build up a very effective commercial organization. We do have a worldwide distribution. We did transfer the market authorizations in a record industry time, and today we have a platform which is really delivering by the numbers that we've reported and allows us a simple plug-and-play. I know JC will go on to explain, it's a bit more complicated than that, but with the new assets that we've brought in, they're also unlocked, as I called it. For various reasons, they've been neglected, Vivotif and Vaxchora. We believe that we have a proven track record now, we can plug them into our system, and we will grow those assets. With CHIKV coming on board as well, that's a huge opportunity to, again, plug into the system that we've built up. Just to remind everyone, where we've come and what we've established has been a great journey. You turn to my last slide, slide nine. Again, the question comes, what is next for Bavarian Nordic with the setback of RSV? My initial reaction to that is, well, not much, really. We're gonna continue. We had a bold ambition before our RSV, and we still do. RSV was a setback, but we will never rely on RSV alone for the future. We are a leading pure-play vaccine company, fully integrated with commercial operations in strategic markets. Our commercial portfolio has grown from one asset to five assets, in-house assets, covering six indications. They're established products, and many of them have leading positions in their fields. We have this attractive underlying growth, supported not only by our own products, but we've been able to attract products from others that are also growing extremely well. The focus on organic growth means that we believe we can grow these assets by, but, but also bring in other assets, like chikungunya through the pipeline. We're a highly profitable company today with a strong cash position and a strong EBITDA margin. Those EBITDA margins, we believe we can further grow by bringing more of the assets in-house. You will see a margin improvement. We're always looking for improving production and efficiency. While we haven't talked about it wildly, we are moving our manufacturing of our JYNNEOS mpox vaccine from eggs to a cell line, which will greatly improve our margins and our profitability moving forward. We see an extremely exciting future ahead, a very strong investment case, and everyone at Bavarian Nordic is excited for the future. With that, I will hand over to JC May, our Chief Commercial Officer. Thank you, Paul, and good morning. Good afternoon, everyone. Very happy to join today to present the performance and outlook of our commercial portfolio. I think as Paul just reminded everyone, when Bavarian Nordic embarked on this commercial journey in 2020, there was some questions were raised on the ability of the company to perform in the commercial space. If you go to slide 11, I just thought that, you know, I would put here some very specific facts that show how BN has successfully turned these products around in less than three years, despite the COVID outbreak in the middle of it. That performance has been at level never achieved before. At the end of last year, we already mentioned that in 2022, we were able to sell the highest number of RabAvert doses ever in the United States. That momentum has continued very strongly in 2023. If we look at the second quarter of 2023, this is the highest number of Encepur doses sold in a quarter since January 2019. Even before the COVID outbreak. Huge performance driven by mostly the German market, but I come back to that. If you look at the total first semester of 2023, this is the highest number of Rabipur, RabAvert doses sold ever in one semester. Another record-breaking number with these two vaccines. Of course, JYNNEOS has never been sold so much outside of the U.S. than in the first semester of 2023. A series of key facts showing that with the commercial organization in place, we've been able, in Bavarian Nordic, to turn this product around. If you move to slide number 12, we can look in a bit more details on the performance of the different products in the quarter and in the first half. 270% growth in the second quarter, 278% for the first half. I mean, this is really impressive growth, and as Paul mentioned, we see that growth coming from all the different assets and all the different geographies we are selling our products in. Very strong growth in this, in this quarter, in this first half, across the portfolio and across the geographies. If we move to the slide number 13 and look at the rabies market, a few key messages here. One is whether it's the U.S. or the German market, we are back to or above levels that where the levels pre-COVID, in the second quarter of this year. An impressive growth, and obviously, that growth is, is extremely strong versus the same quarter of last year. 20% growth in the U.S. and 93% growth in the German market. Bavarian Nordic, being the, the market leader on the rabies market, is driving in part, this growth by the different activities that we put in place, of course, benefiting from the growth of the whole market as, as a market leader. If we look on slide 14, our sales performance quarter by quarter, we see here continued growth quarter after quarter, driven by, as I said, the all market growth, also market share gain, especially in the United States, where we have put in place some very good contracting relationship with large GPOs, making RabAvert the vaccines of choice across a wide network of purchasing facilities. We really position Bavarian Nordic and RabAvert as a key partner with key customers in the U.S. We managed to get to a 70% market share in the U.S. As a reminder, pre-COVID, in 2019, under the previous ownership of this asset, the market share was 65. We've been able to gain share in a growing market. In the United States, in Germany, sorry, we have been able to defend a 94% market share in that market. Obviously there, when the market is growing, it's because Rabipur is growing. If we move to the other key assets in this portfolio on slide 15, the tick-borne encephalitis market. It's been a journey as well to see a recovery for, for that market. We are very pleased to see that in the second quarter of 2023, we are back or slightly above even, the level of 2019, which is the reference that we use as the pre-COVID situation. 7% growth versus 2019, and a very good 35% growth in versus the Q2 of last year. A very strong rebound and coming from more demand for vaccination and a regain of interest and awareness on the tick-borne encephalitis disease. If we look at slide 16, 47% growth of revenues for Encepur versus last year, we had 26. Overall, you know, a very strong growth for the first half of 40%. Great momentum there, as you may remember, we had some stock out situation at the end of last year in Q4, leading to a market share erosion at that time. What we see here is month after month, in our key market, in Germany, we regain the share that we had lost in Q4, and we end up now at 28%. Very strong performance. I think, you know, I'm very proud of what the team has achieved here, reflecting also on what we just described on the journey, if we move to the slide 17. The way we can explain how we've been able to deliver such a strong performance is that from the very beginning, we had a very clear strategy focusing on our critical markets, United States and Germany in particular. We have, also been able to have commercial operations in all the markets, representing more than 90% of our business. We also were very clear that we would be looking for partners for the other markets, and very clearly and rapidly been able to, find, the right partners for these different markets. We also had a lean go-to-market model, where we wanted to align with the specificity and the market characteristic of our customers in the different territories. We have a business-to-business type of approach in some places. We have business-to-consumer approach in some others. We have also a business-to-government approach with some of our assets, and we have a salesforce-based or an account-based model. very, at, adapted approach of the, the market needs and the assets. Partnerships, we're also very proud that, when Dynavax was looking for a partner to launch their vaccine in Europe, they, they picked Bavarian Nordic, allowing to an expansion of our commercial portfolio and making good synergies with the investment we have made in some of our territories. And on the other end, as I said, also, having portfolio and geographical synergy with partners like Valneva. We've been also very diligently working on pricing strategy, making sure we had the good balance between market access and optimization of the revenues. So we've been working on competitive price points and been able to bring the prices more in line with the competition in some markets, adjusting also to the cost of living increases, and, and balancing then the revenues and the volume trade-offs for, for these different assets. Last but not least, I think I also very strongly focused on bringing value to our customers. We have, you know, as I mentioned, put contracts in place with some key customers, establishing long-term relationship with them. We've been very active working on scientific meetings and supporting scientific communities. We do have day on- day in, day out contact with our key customers in our key markets, and we monitor how this is impacting the perception and the reputation of Bavarian Nordic with this HCP population. We have surveys showing that quarter after quarter, we see an improvement of the, the awareness about Bavarian Nordic as a company, which, as a reminder, by Q1 2020, was completely unknown. Now it's known, and it's known and with a good reputation, which is better than the peer group with which we compare ourselves. A lot of good stuff and a good, very strong base that we have put in place, which give us the confidence that with the extended travel portfolio that we've just acquired, we will be able to repeat, you know, this success story that we've just been able to demonstrate on Encepur and Rabipur. You know, Vivotif, only orally administered typhoid vaccine, really a lot of opportunity there. We are approved in more than 25 countries. This product has been relaunched in the U.S. We've already took some actions there since we took over mid-May, to grow this asset in the U.S. and make the most of this $250 million market opportunity that is in front of us. Vaxchora, also very well-differentiated asset, single dose, orally, the only cholera vaccine approved in the United States. There, again, you know, we can leverage the partnerships we have, the connections we have with the key customers in these key markets on travel vaccines to grow Vaxchora. Chikungunya, absolute, absolute jewel that we now have coming in, in our portfolio. We're very, very confident that is a very well-differentiated asset. We, we can definitely launch this in a very differentiated way. Of course, there is work to be done on disease awareness and building that differentiation versus the competition, but with a $500 million estimated chik vaccines market, we see this as a fantastic growth opportunity for, for our portfolio and for Bavarian Nordic. A lot of excitement, not only in what has been delivered, but also in what's coming, and looking forward to share more good news in following calls, quarterly calls in the future. With that, I hand over to Henrik Juuel. Great. Thank you very much, JC. Let's turn to slide number 20, where I will take you through the financial results. Both Paul and JC already mentioned that this is a record-breaking second quarter and first half year that we are looking at, which of course, is also translating into the financial numbers here. We already talked a lot about the numbers, close to DKK 2 billion in revenue for the quarter and DKK 3.2 billion for the first six months. We are looking at growth rates getting close to 300% compared to last year. Obviously, to a large extent, driven by the large mpox, smallpox revenue, but also driven by very, very healthy growth rates coming from the rest of our commercial business, as just explained by JC. These results deliver gross profit margins of 66%, both for the quarter and for the half year, so strong, good gross margins as well. If you look at the total operating costs for the quarter, DKK 757 million, it is significantly above last year and obviously explained by R&D, where we have spent a lot on, on RSV, obviously. We have also included some on the chikungunya. All the numbers from the acquisition from Emergent BioSolutions have now been consolidated into these numbers here. SG&A costs also up compared to last year, driven by a couple of factors. First of all, the high activity level, higher revenue means higher distribution costs, but it's also impacted by costs associated with the acquisition from Emergent BioSolutions. Deducting the total operating cost gives us an EBIT of DKK 546 million for the six months and DKK 916 million for the first half. If we turn to the EBITDA, which is the parameter we are guiding on, we are delivering an EBITDA of DKK 690 million for the second quarter, compared to a loss of DKK 118 million the prior year. For the first half year, we are talking about close to DKK 1.2 billion in EBITDA, corresponding to a very healthy EBITDA margin of 36%. Very, very strong results that we are, we are obviously pleased with. On slide 21, you will see the cash flow and a few selected balance sheet numbers. First of all, highlighting here the cash flow from operating activities, positive by DKK 228 million. This is despite the planned and continued inventory build-up associated with the tech transfer of the product from GSK. Obviously driven by the positive net profit of more than DKK 900 million for the period. Cash flow from investment activities is negative by DKK 702 million and impacted by the acquisition. Remember, we paid the upfront payment to Emergent BioSolutions, close to $300 million in this period here. That was partly offset by us selling securities where we kept our cash position in securities, and we sold some of those to partly finance the upfront payment to Emergent. Cash flow from financing activities was impacted by the capital increase we did earlier in the period. It's also positively impacted by the funding from the Danish Ministry of Health through the ABNCoV2 or COVID-19 project, and also impacted by Bavarian Nordic paying back the repo position that we had in the past. Altogether, net cash flow positive for the period of DKK 260 million, leaving us with a very healthy cash position that you will see on the right side of this slide of close to DKK 1.4 billion. Which also means that we have absolutely no need, nor any plans to raise capital with the current plans and projects in place here. On slide 22, just want to remind you about our guidance. On August 3rd, we came out and revised our guidance. We increased our expectations to revenue to DKK 6.9 billion for the full year, and EBITDA we increased by DKK 100 million to DKK 2.3 billion. What's included in here is the new BARDA order we got of $120 million, primarily to secure replenishment of the bulk inventory that BARDA partly and largely consumed last year in connection with the mpox orders we delivered to them. $100 million of those will help us this year, the rest in the coming years. We also included the several other smaller mpox orders, a handful of orders, not large enough to be announced on their own, but contributing to the overall increase in guidance here. We have also included now the Emergent acquisition or the acquisition from Emergent BioSolutions. Remember, we closed the transaction on May 15, so we have included 1.5 months from that business. In our outlook, we have included DKK 165 million of revenue and negative EBITDA of DKK 375 million. It's negative due to the further development of the chikungunya vaccine, but also as we are only ramping up the revenue from Vivotif and Vaxchora. We have also had a close look at the RSV program when we came out with this guidance here. In the guidance, we have included what we label net savings from termination of the RSV program. We do have commitments we need to honor, but we're also expecting significant savings this year from the termination of this program, and in combining the two, it will be a net saving you're looking at. That, of course, will also be needed to compensate for the loss of the anticipated milestone from our RSV partner, Nuance Pharma, where we had in the original guidance included DKK 195 million. A little more detail on the RSV impact. I mentioned a couple of them already. We do not get the milestone we originally anticipated, of course. Of course, it will leave a revenue gap from when we expected the launch of the RSV vaccine, late 2025. It will give us net savings this year, and it will give us significant savings already in 2024 of more than DKK 500 million, as we are not continuing the development program, and it will improve our cash position in the period 2023-2025. With that, I would just like to end our presentation with this slide that Paul already took you through. I won't repeat what everything Paul said, but this is really our investment story. The company you're looking at right now is already a leading pure-play vaccine company. We are the world's largest travel vaccine manufacturer. We are operating with products and in markets with an underlying healthy growth. We have a strong focus on organic growth, strong financial performance, even with some improvement opportunities, and we are in a very strong cash position and no need to raise capital. With that, I will ask the operator to open up for question and answers. Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A queue. Our first question comes from the line of Thomas Bowers from Danske Bank. Please go ahead. Great. Thank you very much. A couple of questions from my side here. Just kicking off with the Rabipur and Encepur, and I appreciate the, the, the color, additional color in the presentation. I'm just wondering, are, are you seeing any sort of fundamental changes in, in, in the market? I, I mean, we have COVID behind us now, and, and you have, of course, shown higher market shares. Is there any, any changes you see to the underlying market growth that we, that maybe should make us think a little bit differently about the, the possible peak market potential for, for both Rabipur and, and Encepur? Just on, on, on JYNNEOS, you have talked a couple of times about ex-U.S. government changes to, to stockpiling strategies. I'm, I'm just wondering if you could give us a little bit of color on, on, on how you see the thoughts are among different governments on, on, on looking at, at the, for example, we saw that the BARDA report some years ago highlighted that it should protect all immunocompromised citizens, so six million lives. Are, are we in, in that area? Also maybe add, add a little bit of color on, on whether stock, split dosing is still also in, on the table in, in regards to, to stockpiling. My, my final question, just on the, on the mpox. We have only seen a few flare-ups in Europe, U.S., during the summer here, but, but now we can see that China is sort of a different story. I'm just wondering if you could give any color on how you see near-term potential in those regions, Southeast Asia, if there's any potential for the also for the near term. Thank you. Thanks, Thomas. Let me take the JYNNEOS and mpox questions. Then I'll hand over to JC to answer the Rabipur and TBE. Yeah, JYNNEOS, there's a mix of questions there. Ex-U.S., I think the only one that we can keep talking about, because it's public, is France. There, they've said that they recommend considering at least replacing the entire stockpile with MVA. Those discussions are continuing, and those sort of discussions with governments, you know, are anticipated to take some time. We are seeing a shift with some governments, that they are seriously considering creating stockpiles. On the U.S. side, I would say there's momentum on two fronts. One, the private market for mpox, potentially. ACIP, mpox is again on the agenda for the ACIP meeting, I believe, in October. What we really need there is for a recommendation in a non-outbreak scenario, if they, if they do come with that, then there is a potential for a private market. That is certainly what the U.S. government are encouraging Bavarian Nordic to support. They would like us to support the mpox private market, if ACIP make the recommendation, for the government to focus on the smallpox stockpiling. In terms of split dosing, you know, in all the discussions that we've had with BARDA in terms of, the, you know, the recent 120 million dose order, the bulk, it is all about replacing the stockpile with a view that one vial is one dose. The future for smallpox, at least in the discussions that we're having with BARDA, is not around that each vial is five doses, and we'll give it intradermally. I think that was on JYNNEOS. On mpox, you mentioned, there are some flare-ups, you mentioned correctly. I, I think even just today, we saw that there's a flare-up in Barcelona, in Spain and other areas in Asia. That, Henrik mentioned, we've seen repeat orders already this year for that. In China, yes, it looks like there are around about 500 official cases in China. We have been approached by the authorities in China, and we are in dialogue with China. The path forward in China remains completely unclear, they, the authorities have reached out to us, and we are in dialogue. With that, I think, JC, if you'd like to answer the first question about the Rabipur. Yeah. On TBE? Yeah, Thomas, thanks for the question. On, on TBE first, clearly what we see, it's, it's a disease that is endemic in Europe, and we see an overall increase on Europe. The, the disease is, is spreading. There's an expansion in, in different countries. We've seen it, you know, going north, going east as well. What does that mean? It means that more and more people living in these countries will be exposed to the, the risk of, of TBE, and therefore, expanding, you know, the number of people that would be eligible for, for TBE vaccination. Combined with an overarching element around the, the value of, of vaccines and vaccination following COVID. I think people really now understand and see the value of being protected and being vaccinated, whatever the disease is. There is definitely a positive trend in the TBE market. On the rabies front, clearly there is a combined element. For example, in the United States, there is more and more awareness for what it is. There is also. We hear stories about wildlife animals coming closer and closer to cities or urban areas, and therefore more people, you know, being also exposed to these wildlife animals and the risk of rabies. That's for the kind of endemic post-exposure market. With regards to the pre-exposure for the travelers, first of all, we see a complete rebound of the international travel numbers faster than what we initially anticipated. Now it's planned, or it's, it's forecasted to have the number of international travelers back to the pre-COVID numbers in 2024, if not, you know, end of 23. There is a more and more awareness around the risk that rabies represent when people travel to some, some territories. There is more consultation again to understand what are the risks and what are the potential. There is a global trend of more awareness. The other element that is also driving is there was a shift from a three dose to a two dose, which means that it's much more accessible for individuals to get their rabies pre-exposure vaccination scheme done before they travel. Of course, it's also less, less expensive, so allowing more people to get the rabies vaccination. On top of that, there are some initiatives we take to make people at risk. Like, for example, we do a program with veterinarian technicians which, you know, handle animals in the U.S. and supporting projects where they would also get the vaccination. It's, it's a number of elements all pointing in the same direction of, you know, more growth coming in these two markets. Very helpful. Thank you very much. Thank you. We'll now move on to our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Peter Verdult from Citigroup. Please go ahead. Sorry, sorry about that. Thanks. It's Peter Verdult here from, from Citi. Just a few. Henrik, just following up from the last question, just the general... or, or JC, the outlook for your travel vaccines portfolio. Strong growth indeed, but, you know, the comps were easy because of COVID. I'm not trying to sort of disparage that, but I want to make sure I, I have a good understanding about what you see as, you know, the volume outlook, ballpark, but also to discuss how travel vaccine pricing trends have tracked this year and last year, and, and, and, and what level of pricing power you think you have on a longer term view. That leads into my second question, Henrik, just now we all know that R&D is going to quickly go back to pre-COVID levels, probably from next year, if not, you know, the year after. Could you give us some ballpark sense of the margin uplift you expect once that tech transfer completes from GSK? I'm just trying to kick the tires and explore the upside potential to the 30% midterm margin target you provided. I know we're not going to get RSV, revenues, but we're not going to get the spend either, and there, there are upside drivers to your margin from R&D outlook and, and the tech transfer. Anything you're willing to say at this point there? Then lastly, for Paul, just returning to a frequent theme, the idea that JYNNEOS is more durable and a bigger revenue stream longer term. You touched upon this in some of your remarks about a potential private market emerging in the U.S. for mpox. What about the smallpox stockpile and whether there's any motivation or willingness from the U.S. government to perhaps replace that with JYNNEOS? Is there anything that is give you increased confidence, or is that still just a sort of blue sky shot, a potential scenario longer term? Thank you. Yeah. Thanks, Peter. Let me, let me take the JYNNEOS one, and then, Henrik, you take the rest two questions. That way I can remember the question. Sorry. Sorry, guys. Sorry. No, no, no, no, it's fine. I think, on JYNNEOS... Yeah, the private market, let's take that one first. There are two things that are ongoing currently. We're doing a pilot, pilot, exercise in Germany right now, where we're distributing, Imvanex in Germany as a pilot to see whether, you know, we could develop a private market in Europe. In Germany, we're one step ahead, in that the the, the authorities have already made the recommendation that people at risk should be vaccinated with Imvanex. We're trying that pilot this year, and we'll see what comes out of that. In the U.S., there has been a lot of discussions with the authorities in the U.S., where they really would like to encourage Bavarian Nordic to open up a private market. In the U.S., it's very different. We can't open up a private market unless there's an ACIP recommendation. ACIP is gradually going through, making recommendations in an outbreak scenario for adults and children. This October, we're on the agenda for them to discuss a non-outbreak point of view. Whether they make a final recommendation in October, or it takes more meetings, we don't know. On the basis of a recommendation in a non-outbreak, we're encouraged, and we've obliged that we would definitely look at a private market for mpox in the United States. In terms of replacing the whole stock pile with MVA, I don't think we're there yet. Certainly, all the discussions that I'm having with BARDA are very, very positive. Obviously, we just secured that $120 million order for bulk. That only goes a small way into replacing the bulk that they've used for mpox. There's a lot more to come, in all the discussions we're talking about, there is a desire to build up to the requirement. Thomas mentioned it before, the 66 million Americans, whether it's still 66 million Americans, I don't know, but it's this larger MVA requirement, and they are moving and talking about how they can fulfill that initial stockpile. So very encouraged by all the discussions, all the developments. Really a bright future, I think, for JYNNEOS Imvanex moving forward. With that, I'll, I'll pass- I'll hand over to you, Henrik. Yeah. Thanks, Paul, and thanks, Peter, for the, for the question here. First of all, on the travel vaccine outlook, it's, it's, it's difficult for us to become much more specific than what, what JC already alluded to here. I think basically, what we're seeing both for the rabies and the TBE markets, is that they're actually already at a level higher than the pre-pandemic, driven by what, what JC said, it's the endemic expansion, in particularly for, for TBE. It's the higher awareness on both products. It's specific initiatives that we are launching. Then, of course, it's the travel pattern picking up again. Specifically for TBE, we only have a few data points where this is the situation. TBE, we saw actually coming back to previous market levels relatively late, couple of quarters there. I think generally, I think we, we do see today a much, much higher awareness of the importance of being vaccinated, and which we, we expect to prevail and continue, and we expect that to drive a continued growth in these markets. I, I'm afraid we can't be more specific about the exact outlook. We'll do that later for 24, of course, when we come back and guide. With regards to the pricing power in the market, I think we should remember that these, these are competitive markets when we talk about rabies and TBE. We are up against big pharma companies, Sanofi, Pfizer. So we can't set the prices as we want. It's competitive markets. There's typically room for, you can say, the annual statutory adjustments. JC also alluded to, there has been opportunities to adjust prices a little, as we felt in some markets, they were not adapted correctly to the market situation and the competitive situation. That's what we can say about the pricing power here. With regards to the R&D level, you're absolutely right that the R&D spend will go significantly down, now that we, first of all, we don't have RSV any longer. You can say the chikungunya has read out positive. Of course, there are still costs associated, but that will fade out over the next couple of years. We will be trending down towards the historical R&D spend level. The only difference really will be that we will have more assets to maintain and, and, and keep licensure on, which also drives some R&D spend, of course. We will definitely be trending down towards the historical spend level with the current portfolio we're looking at. The tech transfer projects, moving manufacturing from GSK to Bavarian Nordic, does not directly impact our R&D spend, as this is just capitalized until we finish that project, and then it will be amortized as we sell. The tech transfer itself project is, is, is going well, and we actually anticipate to, to be able to finalize that in the second half of next year. I hope that answered your questions, Peter. Thank you. Thank you. We'll now move on to our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Boris Peaker from TD Cowen. Please go ahead. Great. Thank you. I have several questions. Maybe first on chikungunya. Obviously, Valneva's pediatric data is coming up. How do you think your drug will compete with Valneva? Specifically, how do you think it's going to be differentiated? Second question on rescEU, something you mentioned in your press release. Is that associated with HERA? Is there any specific biodefense budget maybe associated with this or with Europe in general? Just want to kind of better understand the dollar or the euros associated with biodefense spending in Europe. I guess lastly, you just were talking about the potential change in the JYNNEOS market based on the ACIP requirements. If they do make a positive recommendation, how do you see this become available? I guess, what do you what does it mean for it to be a commercial product? Yeah, sorry, I was, I was on mute. Let me, let me take the JYNNEOS questions, and then let's see who's best qualified for the EU question. On Valneva. Valneva's data that they've reported for their Chik, they see very high seroconversion rates, but at day 29. In their phase II studies, they didn't see much before day 29, and it's our understanding at least, that in their phase III, they didn't even look. What we see is similar seroconversion rates at day 22, but the same seroconversion rates at day 15, much faster onset of protection. As I said, about 50% of the subjects in phase III, also seroconverted by day seven. We see much earlier onset of protection with a single vaccination compared to Valneva. That, I think, is a strong, strong competitive edge for travel vaccine. Most people leave it to the last minute. Most people don't have a month to wait before they travel. I think that's one differentiating factor. How will we compete? I think today, JC has just talked about the setup that we have in the U.S. and in Germany, which will be the two key markets where we're extremely successful with rabies, TBE, and therefore, I think we will be equally... We're well set up for success, and I believe we have the best-in-class vaccine. I think we'll compete very strongly. On JYNNEOS, you, you talked about the private market. If we just focus on the U.S., yes, we would need a recommendation from ACIP, but how would it look? We're in discussions with a number of parties, but one way of distributing the product would be through pharmacies, which is a lot like the HIV PrEP drugs are also distributed in the same way with great success. That could be one path. You know, we're still in discussions with a lot of parties in very early stage, because without the ACIP recommendation, there's really nothing that we can do. We're really waiting for that recommendation first. On the EU funding, I don't know. Henrik, do you, do you want to take that, or? Sure, I can do that, definitely. Yeah, on the contract we announced with the, under the rescEU program of EUR 10 million. RescEU is sort of a new body under the European Union, which, which aims to strengthen EU's ability, really, to respond to biological threats in the future. It's a little like BARDA, small scale, but you can say a new initiative by the EU Commission. It's very well coordinated and aligned with HERA, obviously. This rescEU, it, it's much more than vaccines. It covers a lot of the things you need to respond to emergency situations. It, the way it works is that the, the member states sign off for participation in this program, and then they can stockpile, choose to stockpile, the vaccines in their countries, but for potential European use, should there be a need in an attack situation or in a situation where there's an unintentional release of smallpox. This rescEU is not directly meant to deal with, for instance, mpox. It is more for emergency use. Obviously, the European use, it also for mpox, is if there should be a larger outbreak again. That is sort of the situation with the rescEU. I think over the last couple of years, we have seen the EU develop both HERA and rescEU to be able to respond to situations like this. It is something in, in progress. We've seen in the past as well, that, like, for instance, HERA does not have its, its own budget in the past. It will be expected to move in that direction, so they will also be able to purchase on their own. So far, it has been based on volunteering member state countries signing off for participation in procurement programs itself. It's, it's not directly part of the HERA, but it's, it's well coordinated, and we have good contacts to both rescEU now and HERA as well. Great. Thank you very much for taking my question. Thank you. We'll now move on to our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Gil Blum from Needham & Company. Please go ahead. Good morning, and good afternoon, and congratulations on a strong first half. Just a quick one from us. Just to give us maybe an idea of a leading indicator here, how bad of a tick year was it in Europe this year, given the elevated temperatures? Thank you. JC, do you want to take that? Yeah, I, I think we don't have yet all the epidemiological data for this year, so this is definitely something that is tracked, but there is always a bit of a lag time. You're right, I mean, the whole change in temperature and, I mean, global warming in general, are definitely seen as elements that would be kind of driving the increase of the TBE epidemic, epidemic. Yeah, that, that makes sense. I mean, I know it's anecdotal, but in the US it's been a very bad year with ticks. Yeah. Yeah, we can add here from Denmark, where we're sitting here today. I think we have seen it, it expand in Denmark. It's been a lot of writing in the press about the relevance of TBE now in several places in Denmark as well. Yeah. Well, there is two elements. One is if it's warmer, also more people go outside and walk and do outdoor activities, so are more exposed as well, as well as, you know, more ticks being around. Thank you. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll hand the call back to Paul for closing remarks. Thank you. Thanks, everyone, for attending and for all, for all your interesting questions. Have a great day. Thank you. Bye. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Speakers, please stand by.