Sanofi Pasteur publishes efficacy data for dengue vaccine candidate

Sanofi Pasteur has announced the publication of clinical trial data that demonstrates the efficacy of its new dengue vaccine candidate against three out of four serotypes of the disease.

The drug showed 61.2 percent efficacy against dengue virus type 1, 81.9 percent against type 3 and 90 percent against type 4 in the Thailand-based study, which was conducted among 4,002 children aged between four and 11 years old.

It marks the first time that a vaccine for this disease has demonstrated efficacy in a clinical study, with results also confirming the treatment's excellent safety profile.

Analysis will now be conducted to explain the resistance of dengue virus type 2 to the vaccine, while other phase III trials remain ongoing across ten countries in Asia and Latin America.

Dr Scott Halstead of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul said: "These results should be a source of hope for millions of parents whose children are at risk of severe dengue, a life-threatening disease which often requires hospitalisation."

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease that is estimated to threaten nearly three billion people worldwide.