Sanofi Pasteur completes final landmark dengue vaccine trial

Sanofi has announced the conclusion of the final landmark phase III efficacy study of its groundbreaking dengue vaccine candidate in Latin America.

The new product was able to successfully achieve its primary clinical endpoint in the study, showing a 60.8 percent reduction in dengue disease cases among children and adolescents aged nine to 16 years old after a three-dose vaccination schedule.

Efficacy was observed against each of the four dengue serotypes, while a reduction of 80.3 percent in the risk of hospitalisation due to dengue was associated with the vaccine.

This new vaccine candidate is the first product of its kind to prove its efficacy in a phase III trial. The results of this Latin American research corroborated the findings of a previous study from Asia.

Olivier Charmeil, president and chief executive officer at Sanofi Pasteur, said: "For the first time ever, after 20 years of research and industrial commitment, dengue is set to become a vaccine-preventable disease."

Dengue threatens nearly half of the world's population and is considered a pressing public health priority in more than 100 countries in the Americas and Asia.