MANY MINDEDA shot covering all four dengue serotypes clears India
India's drug regulator has approved Takeda's dengue vaccine Qdenga — the first dengue vaccine cleared in the country, according to the drugmaker's India unit. Qdenga is designed to protect against all four dengue virus serotypes and is indicated for prevention in children and adults aged 4 to 60. It has now been approved in 43 countries.
The trial record behind it: in a late-stage study, the vaccine showed 80.2% efficacy against confirmed dengue one year after the second dose, and 90.4% efficacy against dengue-related hospitalisation at 18 months, meeting a secondary endpoint of the study.
The scale it lands on is the point. The WHO recorded a record 14.4 million dengue cases and 11,201 deaths worldwide in 2024, including 232,425 cases and 233 deaths in India, and Takeda's India unit says reported cases there have risen elevenfold over two decades. Dengue is among the fastest-spreading vector-borne illnesses in the world, and no vaccine had been cleared in India before this. An approval converts an open-ended, worsening burden into something a health system can plan against.
Approval is not supply. The announcement carries nothing on price, rollout schedule, or how many doses will actually reach India, and the efficacy numbers are the company's own trial results. The thing to watch is the terms on which it becomes available.
Source: HumanProgress