Japan's Takeda collaborates with India's Biological E. to scale up dengue vaccine production

Takeda dengue vaccine: Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical and India's Biological E. have forged a partnership to enhance the production of Takeda's dengue vaccine, Qdenga. The collaboration aims to bolster vaccine availability for governments in endemic countries by 2030, facilitating their national immunisation programs.

According to statements released by both companies on Tuesday, Biological E. is set to ramp up its manufacturing capacity to produce 50 million doses of the dengue vaccine annually. This initiative accelerates Takeda's ambitious goal of achieving an annual production capacity of 100 million doses within the next decade.

While Takeda's dengue vaccine is currently accessible for children and adults in countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Argentina, and Brazil, it is notably not approved for use in India. Despite this, Brazil has taken proactive measures to combat the mosquito-borne disease, procuring 5.2 million doses of Qdenga, with an additional 1.32 million doses provided at no cost as part of emergency measures and mass vaccination efforts.

The urgency of addressing dengue is underscored by the World Health Organisation's (WHO) observations of a significant surge in cases and deaths reported in endemic regions since the beginning of 2023. Alarmingly, the disease has spread to areas previously unaffected by dengue, prompting heightened global health concerns.

WHO estimates reveal that over five million dengue cases and more than 5,000 associated deaths have been recorded across all six WHO regions, signaling the pressing need for concerted efforts to combat the disease on a global scale.

(With Reuters inputs.)