Pharma firm Sanofi Pasteur makes headway in dengue vaccine trials

In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the vaccines division of pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur has announced that the company’s dengue vaccine trials in Latin America have shown a 60.8 per cent efficacy in children and adolescents.

Analysis showed that three doses of the vaccine administered to children aged 9-16 years gave a 95.5 per cent protection against severe dengue and an 80.3 per cent reduction in risk of hospitalisation during the study.

The full data of the Latin American study has been presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Every year, an estimated 5,00,000 people including children are hospitalised due to dengue across the globe.

“Until now, we were only able to provide supportive care for patients with dengue. On the strength of the outcome of this phase III efficacy study, we hope this will become an effective preventive measure against dengue,” said Dr Rivaldo Cunha, associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Universidade de Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil and a principal investigator of the study. A total of 20,869 children aged 9-16 years from dengue endemic areas of Brazil, Columbia, mexico, Honduras and Puerto Rico participated in the study.

- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/pharma-firm-makes-headway-in-dengue-vaccine-trials/#sthash.yKIt0IMs.dpuf