Consider licensing Takeda's dengue vaccine, virologist tells govt

The government should consider licensing the Qdenga vaccine against dengue to help combat the disease in the country, said virologist Lam Sai Kit.

He said despite intensified efforts to suppress Aedes mosquitoes that could spread the virus, including by using Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes in dengue hotspots in the Klang Valley, the number of dengue cases has not shown any significant decrease.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry reported a total of 123,133 dengue cases last year resulting in 100 deaths, which is an increase from 66,102 cases and 56 deaths in 2022.

Unlike an earlier dengue vaccine, Lam said the Qdenga vaccine by the Japanese firm Takeda Pharmaceutical Company is suitable for individuals regardless of whether they were previously infected with dengue or not.

“The Health Ministry should look into the licensing of the Qdenga vaccine as soon as possible so that individuals who wish to be vaccinated can have access to it immediately,” said the emeritus professor at Universiti Malaya.

Qdenga is one of only two commercially available dengue vaccines, following its approval in Indonesia and the European Union in 2022.

It is designed to protect against all four serotypes of dengue. An advisory group to the World Health Organization has recommended the vaccine for children aged four to 16 years in places where dengue is endemic.

In a three-year clinical trial involving over 20,000 children in Asia and Latin America, a two-dose vaccine regimen was 80.2 percent effective in preventing confirmed dengue cases within the first year after the second dose.

“The vaccine efficacy results in preventing hospitalisation by 90.4 percent, with sustained overall vaccine efficacy of 61.2 percent and 84.1 percent against disease and hospitalisation.

“In terms of safety, Qdenga has been generally well tolerated and no important safety risks have been identified in the Tides (Tetravalent Immunisation against Dengue Efficacy Study) trial,” Lam said.

Qdenga vs Dengvaxia

The other commercially available dengue vaccine is Sanofi Pasteur’s Dengvaxia vaccine, which was approved in several countries - but not Malaysia - in 2015.

However, it can only be used on people who are confirmed to have a previous dengue infection as Dengvaxia increases the risk of severe dengue infection in people who haven’t had dengue before.

This became a point of controversy in the Philippines in 2017 when the government there rolled out Dengvaxia to schoolchildren regardless of their dengue history, until Sanofi Pasteur reportedly learned of the complication when it reanalysed its trial results and advised the government to stop.

With Qdenga, however, Lam notes the newer vaccine is approved for people regardless of their prior exposure to dengue, so there is no need for pre-vaccination testing to check whether they had the disease before. - Mkini