HYDERABAD: Takeda and Biological E Limited (BE), a leading India-based Vaccines and Pharmaceutical Company, on Tuesday, announced a strategic partnership to accelerate access to QDENGA (Dengue Tetravalent vaccine [Live, Attenuated]) (TAK-003) multi-dose vials (MDVs). These doses will ultimately be made available for procurement by governments in endemic countries by 2030 at the latest to support National Immunisation Programmes.
MDVs offer economic and logistical advantages for national immunisation programmes by minimising packaging and storage expenses, while also reducing medical and environmental waste. BE will ramp up to a manufacturing capacity of upto 50 million doses a year, accelerating Takeda’s efforts to manufacture 100 million doses a year within the decade. The partnership will build upon existing manufacturing capacity for the vaccine at Takeda’s facility in Singen, Germany and Takeda’s long-term partnership with IDT Biologika GmbH.
“Takeda’s long-term goal for our dengue programme has been to make QDENGA broadly available to those at risk who may benefit from immunisation. Within the last year, we have successfully launched in private markets, are now launching in some public programmes, and working with partners to support a broader public health impact,” said Gary Dubin, MD, president of the Global Vaccine Business Unit at Takeda.
Dengue fever is among the most common mosquito-borne viral diseases worldwide, with global incidence rates increasing 30-fold over the last 50 years due to urbanisation, travel and climate change. Dengue is currently endemic in more than 100 countries and causes an estimated 390 million infections each year. The Americas, South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions are the most seriously affected, with Asia alone representing 70 percent of the global burden of disease.
QDENGA is currently available for children and adults in the private market in countries like Europe, Indonesia and Thailand, and in private and some public programmes in Argentina and Brazil. TAK-003 is not approved for use in India.