EU to study potential vaccine for Lyme disease: companies

EU officials have agreed to study an experimental vaccine against Lyme disease, the world's most common tick-borne illness, its developers said Friday.

Pfizer and the French-Swiss firm Valneva say trials have shown a 70 percent efficacy rate in people aged five and above for a disease that currently has no approved vaccine.

Despite a disappointing trial result earlier this year, the two firms said the European Medicines Agency had accepted its application for approval of its treatment, formally called PF-07307405.

While rarely fatal, Lyme disease can cause rashes and flu-like symptoms among people who are bitten by an infected tick, and in some cases neurological problems.

"We believe vaccination has the potential to provide an important new layer of protection against this debilitating disease," Pfizer's chief vaccines officer, Annaliesa Anderson, said in a joint statement.

Research in 2022 estimated that more than 14 percent of the global population has had the disease, warning that transmission rates could increase as climate change brings longer, drier summers.

Shares in Valneva surged nearly 16 percent on the news in early trading on the Paris stock exchange Friday.

The EMA's acceptance "represents a major milestone, especially considering that more than 200 million people live in Lyme disease risk areas in Europe," Valneva's chief executive Thomas Lingelbach said in the statement.