Pfizer's $130M Lyme disease vaccine advances to phase 3 after 3rd shot shown to increase antibodies

Pfizer is taking its Valneva-partnered Lyme disease vaccine into phase 3. With midphase data supporting a three-dose series, the allies plan to kick off a phase 3 clinical trial of the regimen in the third quarter.

Valneva sold Pfizer the rights to multivalent protein subunit vaccine VLA15 for $130 million upfront in 2020. At that time, Valneva had already started two phase 2 clinical trials of the vaccine candidate. Pfizer and Valneva initiated a third midphase trial to compare two- and three-dose VLA15 regimens last year, leading to the generation of the data that has now persuaded the partners to move into phase 3.