Dengue: Takeda partners for vaccine production – 02/27/2024 – Health

The pharmaceutical company Takeda, responsible for producing the Qdenga vaccine against dengue, announced on Monday (26) a partnership with the Indian industry BE (Biological E. Limited) to expand production of its vaccine.

The strategic partnership aims to accelerate the production of Qdenga doses that will be made available to countries where there is a dengue epidemic by 2030.

The agreement provides for the offer only for National Immunization Programs, as is the case with the agreement made with the Ministry of Health.

According to the statement, BE has the production capacity of up to 50 million doses of Qdenga per year. With the partnership, the expectation is that joint production will reach up to 100 million doses per year by 2030.

Other manufacturing units involved in the Qdenga manufacturing process, such as Takeda units in Singen, Germany, and IDT Biologika, are expected to reach full production capacity.

In the statement, Takeda Global Vaccine Trading Unit President Gary Durbin said the company has a long-term goal of making its vaccine widely available to all those at risk of worsening disease. “We are proud to present this partnership with BE, which is a company with expertise in vaccine production and which has supported public health programs around the world,” he said.

Brazil is currently experiencing an unprecedented dengue epidemic. According to data from the Ministry of Health, the country records a total of 920,427 probable cases and 184 deaths, according to an update from the Arbovirus Monitoring Panel this Monday (26).

Qdenga was incorporated into the PNI (National Immunization Program) and is applied to children and adolescents aged 10 to 14 years in some municipalities at critical risk of the disease, according to criteria defined by the Ministry of Health. This is because the quantity of doses made available by pharmaceutical for 2024, of 5 million doses, is very low. For this reason, the folder aligned with the WHO (World Health Organization) recommendation to only include the age group that is at highest risk of hospitalization due to the virus.