LYMErix was the first vaccine approved by the FDA to prevent Lyme disease.
SmithKline Beecham developed LYMErix using a recombinant form of outer-surface protein A, or OspA, from Borrelia burgdorferi, the main Lyme disease bacterium in North America. The FDA approved it in 1998 for people aged 15 to 70 who lived or worked in areas where Lyme disease was common.
Unlike many vaccines that mainly prepare the immune system to attack an organism after it enters the body, LYMErix worked partly inside the feeding tick. Antibodies taken up by the tick with a blood meal could attack the bacteria before transmission to the person was completed.
LYMErix was withdrawn from the U.S. market in 2002 after weak demand, concerns about possible adverse effects, and litigation. Its withdrawal did not establish that the vaccine caused those concerns. No currently marketed human Lyme disease vaccine replaced it in the United States for many years.