Lyme Disease Becomes Latest Infection for New Vaccine Trials

Pharmaceutical companies are trying to launch a new vaccine against Lyme disease after cases recently increased almost five-fold in 15 years.

Pfizer and Valneva announced in a statement last week that they are conducting later-stage studies into what could be the first vaccine to fight the disease in decades.

Current studies are meant to "investigate the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of their investigational Lyme disease vaccine candidate, VLA15," according to researchers.

"With increasing global rates of Lyme disease, providing a new option for people to help protect themselves from the disease is more important than ever," said Annaliesa Anderson, Head of Vaccine Research & Development at Pfizer, in the statement.