Lyme Disease Vaccine Candidate 'Summers at the Vineyard'

The summer residents of Massachusetts-based Martha's Vineyard may have an option of participating in a clinical study for a much anticipated Lyme disease vaccine.

The MVTimes reported on July 11, 2022, that Michael Loberg, president of Vineyard Medical Care, confirmed Valneva SE's VLA15 vaccine candidate is conducting its phase 3 clinical trial on Martha's Vinyard.

VLA15 is the only active late-stage vaccine program in human clinical development against Lyme disease.

VLA15 is a multivalent recombinant protein vaccine targeting Borrelia's outer surface protein A (OspA). It is designed for prophylactic, active immunization against Lyme disease against most human pathogenic Borrelia species.

Vineyard Medical Care will be among the Vineyard facilities assisting with the trial. "For us, it's an easy decision to make to work with them, and we're pleased they chose the Vineyard to do it," Loberg commented.

"The (clinical) trial will help address what Loberg described as "one of the major unmet medical needs we have here on Martha's Vineyard.... they're trying to reduce the incidence of Lyme disease in areas that are epidemic, and we are a good place to do this," Loberg said.

Loberg expects specialized trailers will be brought to the Vineyard to facilitate participation in this summer's study.

Note: various clinical studies are currently recruiting qualified participants.

According to the U.S. CDC, Lyme disease is a systemic infection caused by Borrelia bacteria transmitted to humans by infected Ixodes ticks.

It is considered the most common vector-borne illness in the Northern Hemisphere and Europe. 

On June 13, 2022, the peer-review journal BMJ Global Health reported that about 14% of the world's population probably has or has had Lyme disease.

France-based Valneva and Pfizer, Inc. announced a strategic development and commercialization collaboration for VLA15 in June 2022.

Pfizer is now leading the vaccine's commercialization efforts.

The VLA15 vaccine development program was granted Fast Track designation by the U.S. FDA in July 2017.

Martha's Vineyard is located in the Atlantic Ocean south of Cape Cod, MA., accessible only by boat or air.

Note: This information was manually curated for mobile readership.