The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday a $43.18 million contract to speed the development of a Zika virus vaccine.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) is providing the funding and technical assistance to develop the vaccine. They will be advancing a Zika vaccine that is already in development, initiated at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

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“Developing safe and effective vaccines is a priority in our strategy to protect the public health against the Zika virus,” said Dr. Richard Hatchett, acting director Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the subgroup of the ASPR that is providing the funding.

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“This investment supports clinical trials and manufacturing of an additional Zika vaccine candidate that could help prevent Zika virus infection and the devastating birth defects that Zika virus can cause,” Dr. Hatchett continued in the statement.

The contract runs through June 2022. Sanofi Pasteur of Swiftwater, Pennsylvania will be conducting the study, and it “will include further process development, scale up, production of clinical trial material, and two Phase I/II clinical trials that are targeted to begin in the first half of 2018,” according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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If the work is successful, the contract includes an option for an additional $130.45 million in funding for Phase 3 clinical trials that would allow the company to submit a license application to the FDA.