ClinicalTrials.gg
Active, not recruitingNCT06899802Updated Oct 1, 2025

A Phase 2 Trial in Healthy Adult Participants of the Recombinant MVA-BN-WEV Vaccine

A Phase 2 interventional study of MVA-BN-WEV and Placebo in Encephalitis, sponsored by Bavarian Nordic. Active, not recruiting at 9 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 50 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-10-01.

Sponsored by Bavarian Nordic · Phase 2, Interventional, and Prevention

Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
411
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 50 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This phase 2 clinical trial will investigate an optimal dose, dosing regimen, and evaluate reactogenicity, safety and immunogenicity in healthy adult participants of the recombinant, multivalent MVA-BN-WEV vaccine. MVA-BN-WEV is intended for active immunization for prevention of disease induced by VEEV and EEEV, in persons aged 18 years and older at high risk of exposure.

02

Conditions studied

  • Encephalitis

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Keywords

  • vaccine
  • equine encephalitis
  • healthy participants
  • phase 2
03

In context

Encephalitis

125 studies on the registry are indexed under Encephalitis; 33 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 411 is above the median of 55 across 62 interventional studies indexed under Encephalitis.

Browse Encephalitis studies →

Lead sponsor

Bavarian Nordic is the lead sponsor of 58 studies on the registry; 2 are open to participants now.

Of its 16 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 12 (75%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 50 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Male and female participants ≥18 and ≤50 years of age at screening.
  2. General good health, without medical illness, physical exam findings, or laboratory abnormalities, as determined by the investigator.
  3. Prior to performance of any trial specific procedures, the participant has read, signed, and dated an form, having been advised of the risks and benefits of the trial in a language understood by the participant, and has signed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act authorization form.
  4. (BMI) ≥18.5 and ≤35.

    a. BMI formula for pounds and inches: BMI = (body weight in pounds) × 703 / (body height in inches)m2

  5. Female participants should fulfil one of the following criteria:

    1. At least 1 year (amenorrhea > 12 months) at screening.
    2. Surgically sterile (bilateral oophorectomy, bilateral tubal ligation, hysterectomy)
    3. Will use as outlined in inclusion criterion 6 from screening until 30 days after last vaccination.
  6. Female participants of and male participants who are sexually active with a female partner of childbearing potential must agree to the use of a highly effective method of birth control from at least 30 days prior to administration of the MVA-BN-WEV vaccine to until last vaccination. Note: medically acceptable methods of contraception that may be used by the participant and/or partner include combined (estrogen and progestogen containing) hormonal contraception associated with inhibition of ovulation (oral, intravaginal, transdermal), progestogen-only hormonal contraception associated with inhibition of ovulation (oral, injectable, implantable), intrauterine device (IUD), intrauterine hormone-releasing system (IUS), bilateral tubal occlusion, vasectomy or abstinence (abstinence only acceptable if refraining from heterosexual intercourse during the entire period of 30 days prior to administration of the MVA BN WEV vaccine until 30 days after last vaccination).
  7. Negative antibody test (anti-HIV), negative surface antigen (HBsAG) and negative antibody to virus.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Pregnant or breast-feeding women.
  2. Participant has an acute or chronic medical condition that, in the opinion of the investigator, would render the trial procedures unsafe or would interfere with the evaluation of the responses, including but not limited to, neurologic, cardiovascular, respiratory, hepatic, hematologic, rheumatologic, endocrine, gastrointestinal, renal, , or conditions.
  3. History of or active autoimmune disease; persons with vitiligo or thyroid disease taking thyroid replacement are not excluded.
  4. Known or suspected impairment of immunologic functions including, but not limited to, liver disease, diabetes mellitus type I, moderate to severe kidney impairment. A known immunodeficiency syndrome.
  5. Known or suspected previous alphavirus infections or previous vaccination (EEEV, VEEV, WEEV, Chikungunya).
  6. Known or suspected previous smallpox vaccination, vaccination with a poxvirus-based vaccine, or mpox infection.
  7. History of other than squamous cell or basal cell skin cancer, unless there has been surgical excision at least 6 months prior to screening that is considered to have achieved cure. Participants with history of skin cancer must not be vaccinated at the previous tumor site.
  8. Clinically significant mental disorder not adequately controlled by medical treatment.
  9. Active or recent history of chronic alcohol abuse and/or intravenous and/or nasal drug abuse (within the period of 6 months before screening).
  10. History of allergic disease or reactions likely to be exacerbated by any component of the vaccine, eg, tris(hydroxymethyl)-amino methane, quail proteins.
  11. History of anaphylaxis or severe allergic reaction to any vaccine.
  12. Having received any vaccinations or planned vaccinations with a within 30 days prior to first or after last trial vaccination.
  13. Having received any vaccinations or planned vaccinations with a non-live or ribonucleic acid (RNA-) based vaccine within 14 days prior to first or after each trial vaccination.
  14. Recent blood donation (including , plasma, and red blood cells) within 4 weeks prior screening, or planned blood donations during active trial period (ie, until the end of the active trial visit).
  15. Chronic systemic administration (defined as more than 14 days) of > 10 mg prednisone (or equivalent)/day or any other immune-modifying drugs during a period starting 3 months prior to administration of the vaccine and ending at the end of the active trial period Visit. The use of topical, inhaled, ophthalmic and nasal is allowed.
  16. Post organ transplant participants whether or not receiving chronic immunosuppressive therapy.
  17. Administration or planned administration of immunoglobulins and/or any blood products during a period starting 3 months prior to administration of the vaccine and ending at the end of the active trial period Visit. Receipt of packed red blood cells given for an emergency indication in an otherwise healthy person, and not required as ongoing treatment is not exclusionary (for example packed red blood cells given in emergency during an elective surgery).
  18. History of coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, angina, congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy, stroke or , uncontrolled high blood pressure, significant arrhythmia with or without corrective/ablative surgery, or any other heart condition under the care of a doctor.
  19. Use of any or non-registered drug or vaccine other than the trial vaccine within 30 days preceding the administration of the trial vaccine, or planned administration of such a drug during the trial period until 12 months after the last vaccination visit (stage 1) or 6 months after last vaccination (stage 2).
  20. Employment with the investigator or CTS, with direct involvement in the proposed study or other studies under the direction of that investigator or CTS, or relationship to the investigator or CTS employee.
  21. Association with Bavarian Nordic as staff, contractors, agents, or business partners or any financial interest in the outcome of the trial.
  22. Federal employees and active-duty military personnel.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(17)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

BMI (body mass index)

Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.

What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.

Postmenopausal

Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

Autoimmune disease

A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.

Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

Live vaccines

Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

TIA (transient ischaemic attack)

A “mini-stroke”: temporary stroke-like symptoms caused by reduced blood flow to part of the brain, spinal cord or eye, without signs of a new stroke on a scan.

Stroke symptoms need emergency care at once, even if they go away.

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Double (Participant, Investigator)
Enrollment
411 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    MVA-BN-WEV Low Dose

    Participants in MVA-BN-WEV Lose Dose group will receive 2 administrations 4 weeks apart with MVA-BN-WEV vaccine of at least MVA-BN-WEV 1.2 x 10E8 Inf.U in Stage 1. 1 additional dose at 1 year after the second administration of the vaccine if Low Dose is the optimal dose for Stage 2.

    Biological: MVA-BN-WEV

  • Active comparator
    MVA-BN-WEV High Dose

    Participants in MVA-BN-WEV High Dose group will receive 2 administrations 4 weeks apart with MVA-BN-WEV vaccine of at least MVA-BN-WEV 3 x 10E8 Inf.U in Stage 1. 1 additional dose at 1 year after the second administration of the vaccine if High Dose is the optimal dose for Stage 2.

    Biological: MVA-BN-WEV

  • Placebo comparator
    Placebo

    Participants in Placebo group will receive 2 administrations 4 weeks apart with Tris-Buffered Saline in Stage 1. 1 additional dose at 1 year after the second administration of Tris-Buffered Saline for Stage 2.

    Other: Placebo

Interventions

  • BiologicalMVA-BN-WEV

    MVA-mBN396 (common name MVA-BN-WEV vaccine), is a highly attenuated, live recombinant virus based on the licensed viral vector MVA-BN, provided as a liquid frozen formulation. It is administered as an intramuscular injection.

    Also known as: MVA-mBN396

  • OtherPlacebo

    Tris-Buffered Saline (TBS) (placebo) is a clear liquid, free from visible extraneous particles. TBS is acceptable for use as a diluent and for intramuscular injection.

    Also known as: Tris Buffered Saline

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Optimal dose of MVA-BN-WEV vaccine in adult participants in terms of immunogenicity based on eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV)- and Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV)-specific humoral immune responses to the MVA-BN-WEV vaccination.

    The participants' serum binding antibody titers of MVA-BN-WEV vaccine as measured by ELISA against EEEV and VEEV at 2 weeks after the second trial vaccination, and the participants' serum neutralizing antibody titers of MVA-BN-WEV vaccine as measured by PRNT against EEEV and VEEV at 2 weeks after the second trial vaccination.

    Time frame: 2 weeks after second vaccination.

  2. Booster response of MVA-BN-WEV versus placebo in terms of immunogenicity based on EEEV- and VEEV- specific humoral immune responses to the MVA-BN-WEV vaccine.

    The participants' serum binding antibody titers of MVA-BN-WEV vaccine as measure by ELISA against EEEV and VEEV at 2 weeks after the third vaccination, and the participants' serum neutralizing antibody titers of MVA-BN-WEV vaccine as measure by PRNT against EEEV and VEEV at 2 weeks after the third vaccination.

    Time frame: 2 weeks after third vaccination.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Safety and reactogenicity of the MVA-BN-WEV vaccine and placebo in terms of solicited and unsolicited AEs in participants throughout the trial.

    Participants reporting: Stage 1 and 2: * Any SAE, regardless of relationship, throughout the trial (first vaccination through the end of the trial). * Any AESI regardless of relationship from first vaccination through the end of the trial. Stage 1: • Any grade 3 or higher solicited or unsolicited AEs assessed as related to trial vaccine from first vaccination through end of active treatment period stage 1. Stage 2: • Any grade 3 or higher solicited or unsolicited AEs assessed as related to trial vaccine from third vaccination through end of active treatment period stage 2.

    Time frame: Duration of trial (approximately 19 mon) for SAE or AESI or during active trial period (defined as the period from 1st vaccination up to and including the end of active trial period for stage 1 (4 wks after 2nd vaccination)/stage 2 (4 wks after booster).

  2. WEEV-specific humoral immune responses to the MVA-BN-WEV vaccine and the VV-specific humoral immune responses to the MVA-BN-WEV vaccine.

    * Serum binding antibody titers against WEEV as determined by ELISA, 2 weeks after second vaccination. * Seroconversion response in terms of serum binding antibody titers against WEEV, EEEV, and VEEV as determined by ELISA, 2 weeks after second vaccination. * Serum neutralizing antibody titers against WEEV, and VV as determined by PRNT, 2 weeks after second vaccination. * Seroconversion response in terms of neutralizing antibody titers against WEEV, EEEV, VEEV, and VV as determined by PRNT, 2 weeks after second vaccination.

    Time frame: 2 weeks after second vaccination.

  3. WEEV-specific humoral immune responses to the MVA-BN-WEV vaccine versus placebo and the VV-specific humoral immune responses to the MVA-BN-WEV vaccine versus placebo.

    * Serum binding antibody titers against WEEV as determined by ELISA, 2 weeks after third vaccination. * Serum neutralizing antibody titers against WEEV, and VV as determined by PRNT, 2 weeks after third vaccination.

    Time frame: 2 weeks after third vaccination.

07

Study locations

9 sites
  • Benchmark Research
    Sacramento, California 95864, United States
  • Lifeline Primary Care, Inc. / CCT Research
    Lilburn, Georgia 30047, United States
  • Johnson County Clin-Trials
    Lenexa, Kansas 66219, United States
  • Versailles Family Medicine, PLLC/CCT Research
    Versailles, Kentucky 40383, United States
  • Benchmark Research
    Kenner, Louisiana 70065, United States
  • Jefferson City Medical Group / Avacare
    Jefferson City, Missouri 65109, United States
  • Clay-Platte Family Medicine, P.C./CCT Research
    Kansas City, Missouri 64151, United States
  • Papillion Research Center/CCT Research
    Papillion, Nebraska 68046, United States
  • Benchmark Research
    San Angelo, Texas 76904, United States
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Started Mar 2025 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Feb 2027, 23 months after the start.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Mar 6, 2025
First posted
Mar 28, 2025
StartActual
Mar 10, 2025
Primary completionEst.
Feb 2027
CompletionEst.
Mar 2027
Last update
Oct 1, 2025
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Oct 1, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06899802
Lead sponsor
Bavarian Nordic
Collaborators
JPM CBRN Medical
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Mar 28, 2025
Start date
Mar 10, 2025
Primary completion
Feb 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Mar 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Oct 1, 2025

Study contacts

Carlos A. Fierro, MD
principal investigator · Johnson County Clin-Trials

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
Yes
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Jul 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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