In its second large clinical trial, Sanofi has found its vaccine for dengue fever to be 60% successful -- promising figures for the vaccine's use in the future.
FiercePharma describes the study:
In a study of 20,875 children aged 9 to 16 across 5 Latin American countries, the vaccine cut down disease cases by 60.8% and reduced the risk of dengue-related hospitalization by 80.3%, the pharma giant said Wednesday. Included in those results was a 42.3% efficacy rate in blocking serotype 2, a viral strain that's evaded the vaccine in previous studies.
Olivier Charmeil, president and CEO of Sanofi's vaccines arm, lauded the results, noting that they'd be submitted to health authorities in countries where dengue threatens public health. Last month, company CEO Chris Viehbacher said he expects Mexico, Brazil and Colombia to be first in the launch line, with initial sales coming as early as next year's Q4; within Asia, he listed Singapore and Malaysia as priorities.
The Times of India talks about how the drug can be used widely for commercial purposes:
The company said it would submit the data to health authorities in countries in which dengue is a public health priority.
A question now is how widely such a vaccine would be adopted. Some experts had been hoping for a greater effectiveness, especially since in the first phase 3 trial the vaccine was somewhat less effective in younger children, who tend to get infected in larger numbers and appear more vulnerable to severe disease.
"With a 56 per cent efficacy, this vaccine will never be a single solution," Dr. Annelies Wilder-Smith of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore wrote in a commentary in The Lancet when the results of the first large trial were published in July.
