Takeda’s dengue vaccine candidate granted priority review by US-FDA

New Delhi: Takeda has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted and granted priority review of the Biologics License Application (BLA) for TAK-003, the company’s investigational dengue vaccine candidate.

In the U.S., TAK-003 is being evaluated for the prevention of dengue disease caused by any dengue virus serotype in individuals 4 years through 60 years of age.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne virus endemic in more than 125 countries, including the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa. Incidence of dengue has increased globally over the past two decades and is a leading cause of fever among travelers returning from Latin America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia.

“If approved, we believe TAK-003 has the potential to become an important dengue prevention option for healthcare providers, and we continue to be encouraged by our discussions with the FDA,” said Gary Dubin, M.D., president of the Global Vaccine Business Unit at Takeda. “This year, of the 888 dengue infections in the U.S., 96% were a result of travel to dengue endemic areas. Of the 316 dengue infections in U.S. endemic territories, 97% were locally transmitted. At Takeda, we are guided by our commitment to serving these affected populations and are fully committed to working with the FDA to advance this filing.”

The TAK-003 BLA is supported by safety and efficacy data from the pivotal Phase 3 Tetravalent Immunization against Dengue Efficacy Study (TIDES) trial, where the dengue vaccine candidate met its primary endpoint by preventing 80.2% of symptomatic dengue cases at 12 months. In addition, TAK-003 met its secondary endpoint by preventing 90.4% of hospitalizations at 18 months, and in an exploratory analysis, it demonstrated protection against dengue fever through 4.5 years (54 months) after vaccination.

The TIDES exploratory analyses showed that throughout the 4.5-year study follow-up, TAK-003 prevented 84% of hospitalized dengue cases and 61% of symptomatic dengue cases in the overall population, including both seropositive and seronegative individuals.

Currently, TAK-003 has not been approved by the FDA or any other health authority outside of Indonesia. Following the approval of TAK-003 in Indonesia, Takeda will continue to progress regulatory filings in other dengue-endemic and non-endemic countries. In October 2022, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended the approval of Takeda’s dengue vaccine candidate, TAK-003, for the prevention of dengue disease caused by any serotype in individuals four years of age and older in Europe and in dengue-endemic countries participating in the parallel EU-M4all procedure.

The final step in the path to approval in Europe is a Marketing Authorization decision from the EMA, which is expected in the coming months. Regulatory reviews will also progress in dengue-endemic countries in Latin America and Asia.