“We are in talks with regulators and plan to start a clinical trial very soon,” said Dubin.
The Japanese drugmaker plans to scale up the production of its dengue vaccine Qdenga through a partnership with Indian vaccine maker Biological E., the companies said earlier in the day.
These vaccines will be available for governments in endemic countries by 2030 as part of their national immunization programmes.
“One of the challenges we have is being able to scale up manufacturing to support what we expect will be a very large global need,” Dubin told Reuters, adding that the collaboration is aimed at doubling Takeda’s current capacity to manufacture the vaccine.
Biological E. will ramp up its capacity to produce 50 million doses a year, accelerating Takeda’s efforts to produce 100 million doses per year within the decade, the companies said. Dubin said Biological E has the technical expertise to manufacture the vaccine. Takeda’s dengue vaccine is available for children and adults in countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Argentina and Brazil, but is not approved for use in India.
Brazil has bought 5.2 million doses of Qdenga, with an additional 1.32 million doses provided at no cost, as the country undertakes emergency measures and mass vaccinations against the mosquito-borne disease.
Since the beginning of 2023, the world has been facing an upsurge in dengue cases and deaths reported in endemic areas, with further spread to areas previously free of dengue, according to the World Health Organization.
The global health agency estimates more than five million dengue cases and over 5,000 associated deaths have been recorded across all six WHO regions.
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