“Dengue vaccine is now on its final stage of clinical development,” said Dr. Rosario Capeding, Head of the Dengue Study Group of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine of the Department of Health (RITM-DOH) during the Dengue Summit at the Heritage Hotel, Manila on 13 April 2012.
Among several dengue vaccine candidates, only Sanofi Pasteur dengue vaccine entered Phase III clinical study which is the ultimate step in vaccine clinical development. “This is the final stage prior to its license approval for market distribution by regulatory authorities,” said Dr. Capeding.
At the moment, Phase III clinical studies are being conducted in Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Peru, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, Thailand and the Philippines to determine the vaccine’s safety, immunogenicity and its capability to control the disease.
In the Philippines, the vaccine was already tested among different human age groups. “Initial data showed very satisfactory results in terms of safety profile and balance immune system response to the four dengue serotypes (serotype 1,2,3 and 4) among children, adolescents and adults tested,” said Dr. Capeding. “With this, we are hoping that the dengue vaccine will be available as early as 2014 to be introduced in countries with the highest dengue incidence like the Philippines,” she added.
The leading dengue vaccine developers worldwide are Sanofi Pasteur, National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States of America, Merck, Inviragen, GlaxoSmithKline and Hawaii Biotech.
