New vaccine against tick-borne borreliosis should correct the mistakes of the 90s

A new vaccine against tick-borne borreliosis (Lyme disease) will soon enter the final phase of testing in

people. If all goes smoothly, it could be available by 2025, making it the first vaccine against the disease in nearly a quarter of a century. Discuss

Phase 3 clinical trial plans to recruit notless than 6,000 participants in 50 locations worldwide. The vaccine requires three doses, each given about two months apart, with a booster given one year after the initial protocol.

The study is expected to run until at least the end of 2024.

There is currently no commercially available vaccine for Lyme disease. However, the vaccine was previously developed in the late 1990s, and was approved by the FDA in 1998.

After the vaccine was approved appearedmusculoskeletal complaints such as arthritis, and these complaints were first amplified by the media and then the subject of several high-profile FDA investigations.

By 2001, hysteria had reached its climax, and againstA class-action lawsuit was filed by the vaccine manufacturer on behalf of more than 100 people alleging harmful side effects, with nearly 1.5 million doses of the vaccine administered at that time.

"The incidence of arthritis in patientsreceiving the Lyme vaccine occurred at the same rate as in unvaccinated people,” – explained a pair of researchers who subsequently looked into the LYMErix vaccine story.

Ultimately, despite the fact thatFDA studies have shown that the vaccine does not cause any adverse effects, the damage has already been done. Sales of the vaccine fell so sharply that LYMErix was subsequently voluntarily withdrawn from the market by its manufacturer in 2002.