Sanofi’s dengue vaccine rolled out for world’s first public immunisation program
pharmafile | April 4, 2016 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Philippines, Sanofi, Vaccine, children, dengue, dengvaxia, immunisation, prevention, public health
Sanofi, along with its vaccines global business unit Sanofi Pasteur, has announced the beginning of the first public dengue immunisation in the Philippines, with plans to vaccinate one million public school children in the coming year.
The tetravalent dengue vaccine, Dengvaxia, was approved last December for use in individuals aged 9 to 45 for the prevention of dengue fever caused by all four stereotypes. The children to be immunised come from 6,000 public schools in three highly dengue-epidemic regions of the country.
The public health burden of dengue is set to be greatly reduced with the availability of this vaccine and public health programs from the Filipino health authorities. It is expected that it will help to prevent 8 out of 10 dengue hospitalisations and up to 93% of severe dengue that includes haemorrhagic dengue fever that can be fatal.
While Asia bears 70% of the world’s dengue burden, recent research has shown that the Philippines has the highest incidence of confirmed dengue in the 10 endemic countries that participated in the clinical efficacy studies for Dengvaxia.
Olivier Charmeil, executive vice president at Sanofi Pastuer, comments: “The Philippines’ scientific and healthcare communities have been important collaborators in the development of Dengvaxia participating in all three phases of the clinical study program that involved over 40,000 individuals from 15 countries.
“Ensuring access to this approved vaccine in a public immunisation program attests to the Filipino health authority’s commitment to add this new dengue prevention tool to their integrated disease management strategy for a disease that continues to represent a major public health threat to their country”.
Dr Cecilia Montalban, president of the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination, says: “The first dengue vaccine has been developed and proven effective in countries like the Philippines where dengue is a major public health priority. As a physician and a mother, I am proud that my country plays a historic role in dengue prevention.”
Sean Murray
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