"Lyme Vaccine's Complex End"

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April 26, 2002

 

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

 

"Lyme Vaccine's Complex End"

American Medical News (www.amednews.com) (04/29/02) Vol. 45, No. 16, P. 30; Landers, Susan J.

 

Due to a significant drop in sales, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced earlier this year that it will remove from the market its vaccine against Lyme disease, which infects more than 16,000 people every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  The vaccine was not 100 percent effective, but for people living in areas with a high population of ticks, it did afford some protection.  The LYMErix vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1998; however, GSK said that sales of the vaccine dropped from 1.5 million doses in 1999, when it was introduced, to a projected 10,000 doses this year.  Dr. Neal Halsey, head of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University, explains that the decreased sales were the result of "public misperception and the promotion" of false concerns.  Some LYMErix recipients said the vaccine caused muscle pain and other problems, but the FDA and CDC recently reported that "the [Lyme] vaccine is safe," and poses "no increased risk of arthritis or any other chronic diseases."  Lyme Disease Diagnostic Center director Gary Wormser considers GSK's elimination of the vaccine a setback in Lyme disease prevention.

 

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