Recent news
February 2011
Researchers cite major progress in dengue vaccine development
February 24, 2011 -- Scientists in Thailand recently announced development of a prototype vaccine against dengue fever and will conduct tests with the goal of bringing it to market within ten years. To develop the vaccine, the scientists created a hybrid dengue virus that carries genes of all four strains of the disease.
According to associate professor Nopporn Sithisombat at Chiang Mai University, the researchers have entered into a licensing agreement with the biotechnology firm BioNet-Asia, which will further develop the vaccine with the aim of releasing the first commercial batch within a decade. Bionet-Asia president Vitoon Vongsangool said his company wants to ensure that the vaccine is affordable, "We want to make the vaccine affordable. When you make it affordable you get more in terms of volume [which] we are quite confident because we know the cost."
In November, the pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur announced that its dengue vaccine was in the final stage of clinical development. See the links below for more information.
