Experimental dengue vaccine to be produced by 2010

8 Jun 2008

Joao Souza

Source: The Butanta Institute (see original article)

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The Butanta Institute in Sao Paulo, Brazil

After a three-year negotiation, and following one of the worst recent outbreaks of the disease, some fundamental steps have been made towards the production of dengue vaccines in Brazil.

The Butanta Institute, located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has announced a project in partnership with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) that will lead to the beginning of human trials for a dengue vaccine candidate by next year.

According to the Butanta Institute, previous tests – conducted in both rhesus monkeys and 20 human volunteers without the disease – have shown promising immunological responses. The local plants for experimental vaccine production are being built and will be operational within the next three months.

The project’s initial investment intake will be around $12.5 million. It will also receive the support of US foundation the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative (PDVI). ‘The vaccine should be tested in Brazil and another country yet to be determined, probably from the Caribbean’, Donald Francis, PDVI’s research consultant, told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.

According to Isaias Raw, president of the Butantan Foundation, the aim is to produce a low-cost product to be handed out freely by local government to the whole population. The initial output will be an estimated in 30 million annual doses for Brazil. It will be targeted particularly at children. ‘It is important to stress that our vaccine is a tetravalent preventive tool, protecting against the four dengue viruses currently circulating in the world’, said Raw.

Dengue fever is the most common mosquito-borne disease worldwide. It infects around 100 million people annually, making it more common than malaria. According to the latest (2007) report from PDVI, about 54.7% of the world’s population – 3.61 billion people – are at risk of contracting the disease, either because they live in an endemic area or might be travelling there. PDVI says the figure is probably an underestimate.

Four different virus strains are so far known to be able to cause the symptoms of dengue fever, which range from mild fever to haemorrhage, systemic shock and death within a few days. To be effective, a potential dengue vaccine must therefore offer tetravalent coverage.

PDVI is currently supporting seven companies, including three located within developing countries – in a quest to achieve an efficient vaccine against dengue within five to seven years’ time. PDVI is located at the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in Seoul, Korea, which is described as the world’s only international organization solely dedicated to vaccine research and development.

Worsening dengue outbreaks around the world illustrate the urgent need for a vaccine. According to the latest figures of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, the 2008 outbreak claimed 123 lives, in Rio de Janeiro state alone, alongside almost 150 thousand clinical notifications.

Brazil will also host the first Pan-American Dengue Research Network Meeting, to be held in Recife, from 23 to 25 July 2008, under the theme ‘Epidemic dengue in the Americas: research challenges’.