Sanofi successfully created the first vaccine for dengue fever and an extensive clinical study proved that it can provide moderate protection from the disease.
The dengue virus is transmitted by the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus to humans. The infection usually manifests itself 4 to 7 days after the mosquito bite. The disease is common on tropical countries because of the high rainfall which is optimal for the mosquitoes' breeding. According to the World Health Organization, about 40 percent of the global population lives in dengue-risk areas. Up to 100 million people are infected, and 22,000 die yearly.
In April, French company Sanofi announced the development of the vaccine and claimed that it could decrease the risk for dengue fever by at least 56 percent.
Maria Rosario Capeding, lead author of the study from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in the Philippines, discovered that the vaccine was able to decrease the cases of having hemorrhagic fever by as much as 90 percent but ineffective when administered to young children, Reuters reported.
The study involved 10, 275 children aged 2-14 from five countries in Asia. The company chose Asia as 75 percent of the dengue cases were from this continent while children have the highest fatality rate.
Results of the trial concluded that the vaccine may be effective as an immune booster but not as efficient for people who had previous exposure, or currently infected with the virus. Therefore, it could be marketed as a vaccine for travelers visiting dengue-prone areas.
Sanofi allotted at least 1.3 billion and two decades for the vaccine's development. It also built a factory at Lyon in Southern France that is capable of producing at least 100 million doses of the vaccine per year.
Sanofi plans to create a special division to oversee the product's introduction to the market once it is accepted by all approving bodies.
Further findings of the study were published in the July 11 issue of The Lancet.
