A laboratory based in Nantes will test its vaccine to treat Lyme disease in humans after proving its effectiveness in animals. Researchers hope for commercialization by 2025.
- The vaccine will be tested on 800 people in phase 2 clinical trials.
- For the future phase 3, which will involve a sample of 16,000 people, the Valneva laboratory has signed an agreement with the American pharmaceutical group Pfizer.
Lyme disease may soon no longer bother the approximately 250,000 Europeans affected each year. In Nantes, the Valneva laboratory, which has been working on the design of a vaccine for 10 years, has just entered the second phase of research after proving its effectiveness on animals. Transmitted by ticks, borreliosis, another name for this pathology, causes fever, fatigue, joint pain and can even cause heart damage. It is usually caught in forests and wetlands, often during walks.
An agreement with the American Pfizer
The effectiveness of the candidate vaccine against Lyme disease will be tested on humans, on around 800 people. “The substance that we are going to put in the vaccine exists, explains Fabien Perugi, head of the pre-clinical research group, to France 3. We are in the clinical development phase. Everything has been proven in animals. Today, we are testing its effectiveness in humans. This is a very important phase, we measure the effectiveness and we adjust the dosage. The whole goal is to move to phase 3 which will allow us to test this vaccine on a larger population.
The vaccine is tested simultaneously in the United States and in Europe since the bacteria are not the same on the two continents. In this perspective, and that of entering phase 3 of clinical trials which involves a sample of approximately 16,000 people, an agreement has been signed between Valneva and the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer. “We needed a partner, recognizes Franck Grimaud, CEO of Valneva. A few weeks ago, we announced an agreement with the American Pfizer, one of the four world leaders in the vaccine, with which we will co-finance phase 3 and which will take care of marketing worldwide. This agreement will bring us 130 million dollars in initial payments, 200 million thereafter and 19% in royalties. The turnover of this vaccine is estimated at more than a billion dollars.”
Marketing for 2025
A first vaccine, developed by another laboratory, was already marketed in the early 2000s but did not show total efficacy. “The previous vaccine only protected against two of the types of this disease, confirms Fabien Perugi. He was stopped. The one we developed is universal and will protect against the six major types of the disease. We can distribute it all over the world.”
The Valneva laboratory hopes to market the vaccine against Lyme disease by 2025. Before the arrival of the vaccine, preventive actions can reduce the risk of tick bites that can lead to Lyme disease. It is preferable, in high-risk areas such as forests and wetlands, to wear long clothes, a cap, use tick repellent and carry out visual checks after walks, especially at the level of the popliteal fossa (the knee crease), armpits, head and ears.
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