In 2026, Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL) Managing Director K Anand Kumar says the country is on pace to develop its first dengue vaccine. In India, dengue is a serious public health issue that resulted in 289,235 recorded cases and 485 fatalities last year. With around 3 lakh cases every year, a vaccination is desperately needed. Phase 1 clinical trials, which center on the vaccine’s safety, have been successfully completed by IIL, a division of the National Dairy Development Board. The business is getting ready to submit for phase 2 and phase 3 studies to evaluate the vaccine’s efficacy as there have been no unfavorable reports from these trials. By 2026 or 2027, if all goes according to plan, the vaccine might be sold commercially.
In this endeavor, IIL is not acting alone. The Japanese pharmaceutical business Takeda is also working on a tetravalent, live, attenuated dengue vaccine called Qdenga. Takeda has started conducting local clinical studies in India and has been given the approval from Indian health authorities to proceed without facing any objections. They’re determined to finish these trials quickly and release the vaccine as soon as it’s approved. Qdenga is currently offered in some public programs in Argentina and Brazil, as well as private markets in Europe, Indonesia, and Thailand.
Takeda uses a dual pricing strategy, charging more in European private markets than in Asian markets. They have joined forces with Biological E (BE), a company based in Hyderabad, to increase production capacity to 50 million doses per year. Within ten years, this partnership hopes to produce 100 million doses annually. BE will play a critical role in ensuring that governments in endemic countries can purchase multi-dose vials of Qdenga by 2030. For National Immunization Programs, multi-dose vials offer financial and logistical benefits by lowering packaging and storage expenses and avoiding waste to the environment and medical resources.
Over 28,000 people from dengue-endemic and non-endemic nations participated in Takeda’s global clinical development of Qdenga, according to Gary Dubin, President of the company’s Global Vaccine Business Unit. Regardless of prior viral exposure, the trials showed therapeutic efficacy of about 84% against hospitalized dengue.
In addition to Takeda and IIL, other significant companies in the dengue vaccine development space include Panacea Biotec and the Serum Institute of India. This concerted effort by several pharmaceutical corporations shows a strong commitment to fighting dengue, a disease that is very dangerous to health in tropical areas like India. The prospect of a dengue-free world could materialize over the next few years with the effective development and licensing of these vaccinations, greatly lessening the burden of this mosquito-borne disease.
SOURCE:
ECONOMIC TIMES
