India’s upcoming Dengue vaccine – All you need to know

• ICMR has invited domestic pharmaceutical companies and vaccine makers to develop the first vaccine for dengue in India.
• The third phase of the clinical trials will be conducted in India itself.
• ICMR will provide all the technical assistance to the companies for conducting phase three trials.

India may soon come up with a vaccine for mosquito-borne viral disease Dengue, which doesn’t have any specific treatment, as of now. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has invited domestic pharmaceutical companies and vaccine makers to develop the first vaccine for dengue in India.

Pharmaceutical companies and vaccine makers who have successfully completed their first and second phase of clinical trials can submit their expressions of Interest (EOI) by March 11, as per a report by Livemint. The third phase of the clinical trials will be conducted in India itself.

According to the World Health Organization, Asia accounts for 70% of the dengue cases reported out of 129 countries and an estimated 100-400 million infections occur each year, over 80% are generally mild and asymptomatic.

India reported 1,23,106 dengue cases in 2021 till the month of October, as per the data by the National Centre for Vector Borne Diseases Control, which is a body under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Dr. Samiran Panda, additional director general of ICMR said, “We all know that dengue is a major public health disease and till date, India does not have safe and effective vaccine against dengue virus disease. The ICMR has been mandated to address the growing demands of scientific advances in biomedical research and find practical solutions to the health problems of the country. Therefore, we have invited pharmaceutical companies/vaccine manufacturers to collaborate with us for a phase three clinical trial to develop a safe and effective dengue vaccine.”

ICMR will provide all the technical assistance to the companies for conducting phase three trials by helping out in study planning and development and implementation.

“ Under this EoI [expression of interest], ICMR offers institutional infrastructure for undertaking further research and development (R&D) and vaccine clinical trials for evaluation of efficacy along with safety and immunogenicity as per regulatory requirement,” said an ICMR document.

World’s first dengue vaccine was invented in Spain’s Saint Louis University and Mexico was the first country to approve it. However, India has not approved any dengue vaccine produced by other countries so far.

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