Japan’s Takeda in regulatory talks to launch dengue vaccine in India

BENGALURU, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical (4502.T) is holding talks with Indian regulators to make its dengue vaccine available in the country, the drugmaker’s global head of vaccines, Gary Dubin, told Reuters on Tuesday.

“We are in talks with regulators and plan to start a clinical trial very soon,” said Dubin.

The Japanese drugmaker plans to scale up the production of its dengue vaccine Qdenga through a partnership with Indian vaccine maker Biological E., the companies said earlier in the day.

These vaccines will be available for governments in endemic countries by 2030 as part of their national immunization programmes.

“One of the challenges we have is being able to scale up manufacturing to support what we expect will be a very large global need,” Dubin told Reuters, adding that the collaboration is aimed at doubling Takeda’s current capacity to manufacture the vaccine.

Biological E. will ramp up its capacity to produce 50 million doses a year, accelerating Takeda’s efforts to produce 100 million doses per year within a decade, the companies said.