TAK-003: A new vaccine to prevent dengue may be on the horizon.
November 8th, 2019
“….The World Health Organization this year listed dengue as one of the top 10 threats to global health.
The mosquito-borne disease is a growing threat for several reasons. First, the sheer number of dengue cases has been increasing dramatically in recent years. The WHO says there’s been a 30-fold increase in infections since 1970. Last year nearly 100 million people came down with the disease, also known as breakbone fever.
Second, there’s no specific treatment for the viral disease. When outbreaks occur, local clinics can get overwhelmed with patients experiencing severe flu-like symptoms. Third, the disease is moving in to new areas as the mosquitoes that carry the dengue virus expand their range……results just published in the New England Journal of Medicine……. found TAK-003 to be 80% effective in preventing participants from getting dengue and 95% effective in preventing cases of severe dengue………The Takeda dengue vaccine still needs to win regulatory approval before it’s made available to the public. Company officials, however, are confident they’ll get it. This week Takeda opened a 100 million-euro factory in Germany exclusively to manufacture TAK-003……..”
States and territories† reporting dengue cases – United States, 2019 (as of October 2, 2019)