Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group, announced today that its investigational tetravalent dengue vaccine is entering into a pediatric clinical study in Thailand to assess the efficacy of the vaccine in protecting children against dengue, the most widespread tropical disease after malaria. Sanofi Pasteur’s tetravalent dengue vaccine candidate is the first to reach this stage of clinical development. Sanofi Pasteur is collaborating with Mahidol University of Thailand, the Ministry of Public Health, and the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative (PDVI) to conduct this efficacy study in the province of Ratchaburi. “Large scale pediatric studies are instrumental for the development of a safe and efficacious dengue vaccine to protect against a disease that primarily affects children,” said Dr. Pratap Singhasivanon, Dean of the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University. “We are happy to contribute to an important milestone with the actual start of an efficacy study in Ratchaburi.” The Sanofi Pasteur clinical study program follows guidelines from the Initiative for Vaccine Research (IVR) led by the World Health Organization (WHO), which fosters the global efforts towards dengue vaccine development. “WHO is committed to the availability of a dengue vaccine that will ultimately benefit children in endemic countries,” said Dr. Joachim Hombach, Coordinator Implementation Research for IVR, WHO.
