The Lyme Disease Market to Show Steady Growth from 2010 to 2018

[cave76]

[Note the word 'market'. For that's what it's all about!]

"The Lyme Disease Market to Show Steady Growth from 2010 to 2018

The estimates that the global Lyme disease market was valued at $46.1m in 2010, and is forecast to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.2% to reach $80.3m by 2018. The main reason for this limited market revenue is that there are no approved vaccines or drugs in the market for prophylactic or therapeutic management of Lyme disease and only off-label antibiotics are prescribed for treatment of Lyme disease."

But Baxter Healthcare Corporation is in clinical trials now for a vaccine.

"The pre-clinical pipeline contains three vaccines and one molecule (VGV-L) with the mechanism of tricking harmful cells to make it more vulnerable to the body’s natural immune responses. The vaccines are being developed by Baxter, Intercell AG and Liege University. The molecule VGV-L is being developed by Viral Genetics.

Pre-clinical studies on the vaccines reported positive results for the treatment of Lyme disease. It is expected that the vaccines will enter the market after the forecast period provided they are safe and effective in further clinical trials. However, once these products enter the market, they are expected to have a significant positive effect on market growth."

Repeating: " However, once these products enter the market, they are expected to have a significant positive effect on market growth."

https://www.asdreports.com/news.asp?pr_id=306

[cave76]

I don't know if anyone here remembers Kathleen Dickson. She is/was a respected scientist (can't remember what specific field) who had posted all the things wrong with that first vaccine. I could barely follow what she talked about but it was partly to do with which OSPs were being used to build the vaccine. She vehemently decried it. She wrote letter after letter trying to prove her point with talk way beyond my ability to understand.

The problem ------ she gradually declined in believability and started ranting about it and then became a figure of derision among Lyme people. She was eventually institutionalized for a period.  I make no judgment about the why and wherefore of her decline. I certainly stopped listening to her what her rants became so bad and obscene that it was painful to read. But was she actually on to something? I do know that many doctors conferred with her, back-in-the-day before.......

Maybe another casualty in the Lyme Wars?

Remember sci.med.diseases.lyme? She was there early on and may still rant there. That's where I first cut my Lyme teeth---- back before it was taken over by sewer rats. Now it's just a sewer and not worth a visit---- believe me.

[JackieCalifornia]

"Now realistically, who is going to go through that [re-vaccination] every 2-3 years unless they're avid outdoors types or people who know they get bit by ticks all the time?"

Well, millions do it to avoid the flu, and they line up every single year.  

What would make the difference is if the med. community stops blowing off Lyme like it's the sniffles, makes appropriate diagnoses, and communicates accurately what Lyme is all about.  That way people would understand the risks, understand that Lyme is epidemic, and IF the vaccine isn't a disaster, get innoculated.  

I'd consider it, but only after ILADS recommends it.  :)

[Ricobord]

You'd think the CDC would be the proponent of the people, and be motivated to find solutions to health care issues that reduce overall costs, before we collapse under the weight of Medicare.

But instead of blasting the country with information about how to identify and treat Lyme Disease early and thoroughly with a couple hundred bucks of antibiotics, they're deeply intertwined with the research and pharmaceutical industries, focused on a vaccine that may or may not be helpful.

The last one required three shots over several months and was only good for 2-3 years.  Now realistically, who is going to go through that every 2-3 years unless they're avid outdoors types or people who know they get bit by ticks all the time?  I had never been bit by a tick before or since (that I know of) the one that gave me three diseases. I would not have considered the vaccine for myself.

The HIV vaccine in it's third round of testing has now been cancelled. It made it all the way to real life testing before it was shown that high risk people who had the vaccine had a higher rate of new HIV infection than the placebo group did.  Scary.

I fear the same thing will happen with the Lyme vaccine, and billions more will have been wasted, rather than using resources to resolve all the ongoing conflicts and getting to the bottom of what it takes to diagnose and treat the Lyme coplex.

[JackieCalifornia]

I'm with you!

[cave76]

I agree, Jackie, even though it might seem as if I didn't agree with making a profit.

Since the Bayh-Dole Act though, university research is no longer that ivory-tower of research that it used to be, or at least made a valiant try at it. University research has always been a hot bed of competition---- sometimes reverting to 'dirty tricks'. Sigh.

Sports figures/entertainers make a lot of money. I'm not jealous of them, particularly, although I'd love to have more $$$ (grin)

But just as Lance Armstrong 'fooled us' there's always a "lance" in university research. Wish there weren't.

[JackieCalifornia]

There has to be incentive for drug companies to spend millions on millions of dollars to find new medications and treatments, and because the drug companies are owned by all kinds of people -- from big investors to mom-and-pop savings accounts -- those investors have to be rewarded for risking their money on something that may or may not work.

There is nothing wrong with making a profit.  It seems reasonable for sports figures and movie stars to make gazillions of dollars, and they're just entertaining us.  Why not allow profits for the investors who may lose their entire investment if things don't work out in the process of trying to cure us of terrible diseases?