Dengue vaccines: progress and challenges

With several dengue vaccine candidates progressing through clinical trials, several options for controlling this disease appear feasible. This would represent a major achievement and reflect decades of research and development activities. The challenges associated with the limited understanding of protective responses and those factors which determine disease severity remain, but with prospective studies ongoing in various dengue endemic areas and the initiation of dengue vaccine efficacy trials, immune responses are being evaluated in the context of protection and severe disease and these studies are highly likely to provide additional insights.

► There is an important unmet medical need for vaccines to prevent dengue. ► New studies of human immune responses demonstrate that most responses are cross-reactive. ► Several vaccine candidates are in clinical development with the most advanced in Phase 3. ► New insights into the basis of protection/exacerbated disease are likely to come from ongoing studies.