The Valneva laboratory could be able to offer a vaccine against Lyme disease by 2025 according to its general manager Franck Grimaud. The disease affects 250,000 new people in Europe each year.
As Lyme disease, transmitted by ticks, continues to spread significantly each year, a vaccine solution appears to be emerging. Franck Grimaud, Managing Director of Valneva laboratory, explained it on franceinfo on Saturday August 1st.
“We started research ten years ago to develop a vaccine that is suitable for European and American strains. The first tests aimed at testing the safety of the vaccine on humans have already passed. is in the process of taking a second step which is to test the best volume / efficiency ratio. ”
Franck Grimaud continues: “The third phase, which should start in 2022, is to test this vaccine on around 16,000 people with a placebo group who will not be vaccinated and a second with our vaccine to demonstrate that a large number of people are well protected. We hope to bring this vaccine to the public in 2025. “
“We have included six different strains in our vaccine, five for Europe that cover 95% of the types of Lyme disease found in Europe. In the United States, there is a single strain that roughly represents 95% of cases “, specifies the CEO of Valneva, stressing the importance of “surveillance after the walks” as a first step to avoid any problem.
“We can see today that this disease has developed a lot over the past 20 years. In the United States there were 30,000 cases 20 years ago, there are 300,000 new infections each year, in Europe it is 250,000. There is a real medical need. “
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