Vaccine expected in five years

Suthee Yoksan, director of Centre for Vaccine Development at Mahidol University’s Institute of Molecular Bio-sciences, reported yesterday on the progress of a vaccine for dengue, which it has been working on since 2009.
Suthee said Thailand had no industrial production capacity so the right to make this live attenuated vaccine was granted to a company in Japan. Vaccine tests on monkeys had yielded a good result – 100 per cent immunisation against all dengue strains via one shot. Immunity occurred 14 to 28 days after vaccination and could last for up to five to 10 years, he said.
The vaccine would be tested on humans from next year, in three phases, he said. The first phase would be a test on 20-50 subjects in Australia, which would take one year. The second phase would be a test on 100-400 subjects in Thailand, which would take two years. The third phase, also in Thailand, would be carried out on over 5,000 people and take three years. So, the vaccine could be complete and ready for use in five years, he said.