The law firms of Sadaka Associates and Lopez McHugh filed a pair of lawsuits in Philadephia alleging GSK’s Lyme disease vaccine LYMERix caused treatment-resistant Lyme arthritis.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs, who were inoculated with LYMERix in the late 1990s, were later diagnosed with post-Lyme disease treatment syndrome or treatment-resistant Lyme arthritis. The complaint said that patients with a certain genetic blood trait are more likely to develop the condition.
Lymerix, the preventive Lyme vaccine by SmithKline Beecham, now GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which first appeared on the market in January 1999. Lymerix works on the outer surface protein A (Osp-A) of Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme Disease. Osp-A causes creation of antibodies from the body’s immune system to attack that protein.
The vaccine was withdrawn from the market in 2002.
