Will the new vaccines prevent Lyme disease? And when will they be available?

Cases of Lyme disease are exploding across the United States, but don’t expect a magic bullet against the tick-borne illness to arrive any time soon.

Issues with clinical trials of a new Lyme vaccine being developed by Pfizer and Valneva mean that the VLA15 vaccine is not expected to be submitted for full FDA approval until 2026—one year later than Pfizer originally anticipated.

With an as-yet unknown efficacy level and a delivery system involving three shots and a booster, the greatly anticipated Lyme vaccine—the only one currently in clinical development—may face some challenges being implemented in the general population, Northeastern University experts say.

Read more from Northeastern Global News.

Photo by Julian Stratenschulte/picture alliance via Getty Images