Takeda and Hyderabad-based vaccine maker Biological E. have formed a strategic partnership to accelerate access to the Japanese biopharmaceutical major’s QDENGA dengue vaccine (TAK-003) multi-dose vials.
BE will ramp up to a manufacturing capacity of up to 50 million doses a year, accelerating Takeda’s efforts to manufacture 100 million doses a year within the decade, the firms said on their partnership that was announced in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy at BioAsia 2024 inaugural session in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
Their partnership will build upon existing manufacturing capacity for the vaccine at Takeda’s facility in Singen, Germany and Takeda’s long-term partnership with IDT Biologika GmbH, a joint statement said. QDENGA is a dengue tetravalent live, attenuated vaccine, also known as TAK-003, is currently available for children and adults in the private market in countries in Europe, Indonesia and Thailand and in private and some public programmes in Argentina and Brazil. TAK-003 is not approved for use in India.
The doses made by Biological E., under the partnership, will ultimately be made available for procurement by governments in endemic countries by 2030 at the latest to support their national immunization programmes. The multi-dose vials offer economic and logistical advantages for the programmes by minimising packaging and storage expenses, while also reducing medical and environmental waste.
Dengue fever is among the most common mosquito-borne viral diseases worldwide, with global incidence rates increasing 30-fold over the last 50 years due to urbanisation, travel and climate change. It is currently endemic in more than 100 countries and causes an estimated 390 million infections each year. The Americas, South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions are the most seriously affected, with Asia alone representing around 70% of the global burden of disease, the companies said.
