Promising news on the lyme disease front, a new vaccine successfully navigated Phase 2 clinical trials, showing to be safe and effective for prevention at administrable doses at the end of last month. Valnera, a French Biotech company, brought their VLA15 vaccine through Phase 1 last year as the drug was fast tracked in 2017.
In the last few months near the end of Phase 2, Pfizer jumped on board for a $130 million buy-in and additional research & development monetary aid this April. Pfizer benefited with a nearly $2 or ~5% rise in its stock when the positive Phase 2 news came out in July, which has been maintained through this month and was much needed after the Covid-19 pandemic drop in the market. Valnera likely benefits from having a big pharma’s resources to get through the very expensive Phase 3 trials and the bring-to-market stage. While we have a few more years to wait for Phase 3 and availability to the public, this news is a glimmer of hope for us outdoors people.
Some history. A vaccine has been long awaited since the last one went out of production in 2002. The old vaccine targeted only one type of Borrelia while this new one targets six of the most common types in both the US and Europe. Very exciting!
Tenaya K. Vallery, Ph.D. 