Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, a global and diversified healthcare leader, discovers, develops and distributes therapeutic solutions focused on patients’ needs, announced that its tetravalent dengue vaccine candidate has demonstrated proof of efficacy against dengue, a threat to almost three billion people, in the world’s first ever dengue efficacy trial conducted in Thailand, with excellent safety.
The vaccine generated antibody response for all four dengue virus serotypes. Evidence of protection was demonstrated against three of the four virus serotypes circulating in Thailand. Analyses are ongoing to understand the lack of protection for the fourth serotype in the particular epidemiological context of Thailand.
“Results of this first efficacy trial with Sanofi Pasteur’s dengue vaccine candidate represent a key milestone in the quest to develop a safe and efficacious human vaccine against dengue,” said Michel De Wilde, PhD, executive vice president, Research & Development, Sanofi Pasteur. “This is also an important development for global public health, since there is currently no specific treatment or prevention for dengue. We are fully committed to making dengue a vaccine preventable disease by bringing a safe and effective vaccine to people living in endemic regions of the world.”
Importantly, the results confirm the excellent safety profile of the vaccine candidate. The full data resulting from this first efficacy trial are currently under review by scientific and clinical experts, as well as public health officials. Detailed results of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented to the scientific community later this year.
Large scale phase III dengue vaccine clinical studies with 31,000 participants are underway in 10 countries of Asia and Latin America. These studies will generate important additional data in a broader population and in a variety of epidemiological settings to demonstrate vaccine efficacy against the four circulating dengue virus serotypes.
The study was conducted in 4,002 children aged four to 11 years, in partnership with the Mahidol University under the patronage of the Thai Ministry of Public Health in Muang district of the Ratchaburi Province. Sanofi Pasteur dengue vaccine candidate is a live attenuated vaccine. The vaccination schedule is three doses given six months apart (at 0, six and 12 months).
Dengue is a threat to nearly three billion people and a health priority in many countries of Latin America and Asia where epidemics occur. There is no specific treatment available for this disease. Dengue is expanding geographically; the recent outbreak in Florida shows that dengue can hit the continental US beyond endemic areas in Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease caused by four types of dengue virus (types 1 to 4). Overall, the disease is a potential threat to almost half of the world’s population. Millions of people develop dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF), a severe form of the disease which is a leading cause of hospitalization, placing tremendous pressure on strained medical resources and having a heavy economic and societal impact.
Sanofi Pasteur’s investigational dengue vaccine - which targets all four virus types - has been evaluated in clinical studies (phase I, II) in adults and children in the US, Asia and Latin America. Overall, an immune response against all four serotypes was observed after three doses of the vaccine. The vaccine is well tolerated with a similar safety profile after each dose.
Large scale phase III dengue vaccine clinical studies in 31,000 adults and children are ongoing in Latin America (Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Puerto Rico and Brazil) and in Asia (the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand). These studies follow the highest standards from the International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH). Sanofi Pasteur’s tetravalent dengue vaccine is the leading candidate dengue vaccine in development.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted fast-track designation to the company’s investigational dengue vaccine. The FDA fast-track designation recognizes that a dengue vaccine would address an important unmet medical need for a serious disease.
The Sanofi Pasteur investigational dengue vaccine is intended for the prevention of dengue disease in children and adults living in endemic areas of Asia and Latin America as well as for children and adults who are travelling to endemic countries, including expatriates and military personnel.