Japanese firm ties up with Biological E to make dengue vaccine

New Delhi: Japanese drug firm Takeda on Tuesday said it has tied up with Hyderabad-based firm Biological E Ltd to manufacture its dengue vaccine. The partnership marks a crucial step in the fight against the global public health threat of dengue fever, aligning with the disease-specific target set by the World Health Organisation to achieve zero case-fatality rate due to dengue by 2030, the company said in a statement.

Announcing the partnership Telangana Chief Minister Anumula Revanth Reddy said Hyderabad will host the facility where the dengue vaccine, a result of the partnership between Takeda and Biological E, will be manufactured. The partnership will substantially enhance manufacturing capabilities to ensure a sustainable global supply of the vaccine, it added. Biological E will scale up its production capacity to potentially reach 50 million doses annually, accelerating Takeda's efforts to manufacture 100 million doses annually within the decade, it said.

"We are proud to announce a strategic manufacturing partnership with Biological E Ltd which has deep expertise in vaccine manufacturing and longstanding support of public health programmes around the world," Takeda President of the Global Vaccine Business Unit Gary Dubin said in a statement.

Together, the entities will help combat dengue on a global scale by significantly increasing manufacturing capacity for multi-dose vials of TAK-003 (vaccine) to drive sustainable access in more endemic countries, he added. As the fastest-spreading mosquito-borne viral disease, about half of the world's population is now at risk of dengue. In India and Southeast Asia, 1.3 billion people live in dengue-endemic areas, with Thailand, India, and Indonesia among some of the most highly endemic countries.