Vineyard Gazette Scientists in Massachusetts say they have produced a new shot that can prevent Lyme disease ready to go to later stage clinical trials.
A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School announced last week that they have teamed up with a pharmaceutical company to shepherd an antibody to phase two and three trials, the next step before getting approval with the federal government.
The milestone is the latest in the effort to prevent Lyme, a tick-borne illness that has hit the northeast, and especially Martha’s Vineyard, hard in recent years. Dukes County, according to Johns Hopkins University, had the highest rate of Lyme disease in the U.S. in 2023, with its 337 cases for a population of about 20,000 people.