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Dengue vaccine is only 30% effective
The poor outcome becomes uncertain future product
Posted on: 11/09/2012 23:53:54 Ace Link: Share:
The world's most advanced vaccine against dengue fever, being developed by French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, had disappointing performance in a test conducted clinical scale in Thailand: its efficiency was only 30.2%, a rate well below the 70% expected to principle. poor result makes uncertain the future of the product, which according to previous statements from the manufacturer, could generate revenue of over 1 billion euros per year. The researchers note, however, that research has a positive side: first, it was proven that a safe vaccine against dengue might be developed. A low percentage of success of the vaccine was because she failed to protect one of four types of dengue virus, the 2 - this is just the most common in Thailand at the time of the test. A person contracting a type of dengue does not become immune to the other. "This result knocked me down," said Scott Halstead, senior scientific adviser of the NGO Dengue Vaccine Initiative, which is not involved with the study. "More experiments need to be done so we can understand what happened," he added. Scientists assume that a vaccine containing all four types of dengue finish by presenting mixed results, underlining the complexity of a disease that has been researched for over 70 years. Despite the negative outcome of the study, pharmaceutical industry analysts reported that the ChimeriVax vaccine from Sanofi continues ahead of rivals in terms of development and is still in an advantageous position. There are at least seven important research in the world trying to find an immunizing against all four dengue viruses. "Although not perfect, the ChimeriVax will be adopted," said analyst Eric Le Berrigaud, firm Bryan Garnier. "But it will not be the vaccine that will eradicate dengue," he said. In July, Sanofi had announced that testing done in Thailand had shown that the vaccine was effective against three types of dengue, without elaborating on the subject. The full results were released late on yesterday in the scientific journal The Lancet, one of the world's most important. Despite the disappointment, the lead researcher, Jean Lang, said the phase 2b study, which involved 4,002 Thai children, was encouraging because the vaccine protected against virus type 1 in 60% of cases and 80% to 90% of cases of types 2 and 3. Interestingly, one dose of vaccine produced similar results with three doses. "This is a milestone, but we must await the results of two large phase 3 trials to have a better understanding of the vaccine," said Lang. These tests are being done with the participation of about 31 000 people in Asia and also in Latin America. If the results had been better in Thailand, the drug could have accelerated their adoption in some countries. Instead, attention has now turned to get the results of tests that will be done in phase three of the study. Thus, a possible release date of immunizing the pharmaceutical should not occur before 2015.