By Bill Alpert

A small developer of vaccines passed a milestone last week on the long road to a preventive shot for Lyme disease.

The French firm Valneva said that 180 volunteers maintained high levels of protective antibodies in a Phase 2 study, after their third annual booster shots. No safety problems have appeared. Valneva and its partner Pfizer should have the final results from their much bigger Phase 3 trial around the end of the year.

Anyone who goes outdoors in the northern U.S. or Europe knows the risk that a tick bite will bring Lyme disease. Antibiotics can head it off, if the characteristic circular rash or flulike symptoms are recognized. But if left untreated, the bacteria-driven disease can cause arthritis, heart problems, and nerve pain.

Some half a million cases occur each year in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, plus another 130,000 in Europe. Well-known sufferers of Lyme's debilitating effects include the performers Justin Timberlake and Shania Twain.

No vaccine for humans has been available since 2002, when GlaxoSmithKline stopped selling a shot it had marketed for four years. Glaxo's vaccine worked, but sales disappointed the company and some patients filed suits claiming they had developed arthritis after the shots. There are several vaccines available for dogs.

Valneva has had its own disappointments. Large contracts for a Covid-19 vaccine lifted its shares above $60 in 2021. The stock crashed when those contracts were canceled. In 2023, Pfizer and Valneva had to drop about half the participants in the Phase 3 trial of the Lyme vaccine, because of problems caused by a third-party operator of some trial sites.

Valneva stock traded recently at $8.93, giving the company a market value of $775 million.

Even though vaccines have been a bigger boon to public health than almost any other kind of medicine, the anti-vax leanings of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might worry investors.

Kennedy has replaced the members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices with a more skeptical crew, and many fear that its mid-September recommendations will restrict vaccine access. But at Morgan Stanley's healthcare conference this week, CEO Stephane Bancel of the vaccine maker Moderna said that state legislatures are passing laws that will let pharmacists prescribe shots regardless of federal recommendations.

Investors may want to bet on science prevailing.

If the current Phase 3 trial has good results, Valneva believes annual global sales could exceed $1 billion, among the couple of hundred million people living in tick-infested regions. The company expects to become cash-flow positive this year, on sales of about $200 million from its existing vaccines against cholera, encephalitis, and the mosquito-borne disease called chikungunya. A Lyme vaccine launch next year could allow Valneva to report profits in 2027.

The French vaccine firm is followed by 10 analysts, according to FactSet, with nine rating it a Buy. Guggenheim Securities analyst Vamil Divan is looking forward to the Phase 3 Lyme results, and has a price target of $13.

Write to Bill Alpert at william.alpert@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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September 09, 2025 18:48 ET (22:48 GMT)

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