Cooperation opens up opportunities to soon bring dengue fever vaccine to Vietnam

On September 28, in Ho Chi Minh City, the signing ceremony of the strategic cooperation memorandum between the VNVC Vaccination System and Takeda Pharmaceuticals (Asia Pacific) Co., Ltd., abbreviated as Takeda, a member of the Takeda Group (Japan) took place with the participation and witness of leaders from the Ministry of Health , Takeda and VNVC.

The two sides agreed to implement many important activities, affirming the sustainable development strategy with the goal of training, scientific research... to promote awareness and improve professional knowledge for medical staff on measures to prevent dengue fever, including dengue fever vaccine.

Cooperation opens up the opportunity to bring dengue fever vaccine to Vietnam soon. Image 1 — Representatives of Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. and representatives of VNVC Vaccination System signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic cooperation on September 28 in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Moc Thao

At the signing ceremony, Dr. Nguyen Ngo Quang, Deputy Director of the Department of Science, Technology and Training (Ministry of Health) highly appreciated the cooperation between Takeda and VNVC - Vietnam's leading complete vaccination system. Mr. Quang expected that the cooperation between Takeda and VNVC will bring practical benefits to the people in the near future.

“We hope that Vietnamese people will have access to the dengue vaccine as soon as possible,” said Mr. Quang.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dac Phu, former Director of the General Department of Preventive Medicine, Senior Advisor of the Vietnam Public Health Emergency Response Center, shared that he had witnessed many outbreaks and deaths caused by dengue fever and understood the role of vaccines in preventing many infectious diseases.

Mr. Phu highly appreciated the superior vaccination model of VNVC and expressed his joy at the growth, reputation and quality of VNVC when there are currently more than 130 vaccination centers nationwide, helping people have easier access to new vaccines circulating in the world.

He hopes that Vietnam will soon have a dengue fever vaccine, helping to reduce the number of cases and deaths caused by the disease, contributing to sustainable control of this epidemic in Vietnam.

“I hope today’s signing ceremony between VNVC and Takeda will be successful and we can soon bring dengue fever vaccine to Vietnam. And of course, the vaccine must meet the standards and requirements for effectiveness and safety to be brought to Vietnam,” said Mr. Phu.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Ms. Katharina Geppert, Chief Representative of Takeda Vietnam shared: “We are very pleased to cooperate with VNVC to bring Takeda's high-quality health care and prevention solutions closer to the Vietnamese people. At Takeda, we appreciate the strength of cooperation between medical partners in each country to work together to solve public health challenges, including solutions in preventing dengue fever”.

Mr. Ngo Chi Dung, Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of VNVC Vaccination System, said that the event is a particularly important milestone. VNVC has fully prepared the best conditions to cooperate with Takeda Pharmaceutical Group to raise awareness of dengue fever. The cooperation event opens up the prospect of applying advanced measures to prevent dengue fever, especially vaccines in the future in Vietnam.

“In the coming time, VNVC will strive to bring back as many and as complete high-quality vaccines as possible, equivalent to those in developed countries around the world, for the Vietnamese people. At the same time, we will try to develop a system of safe, quality vaccination centers at reasonable costs and have more financial support solutions so that many people across the country have the opportunity to fully access vaccines,” Mr. Ngo Chi Dung emphasized.

After the signing ceremony, Takeda cooperated with the Pasteur Institute of Ho Chi Minh City to organize a workshop on “Orientations and solutions to improve the effectiveness of dengue fever prevention and control in Vietnam”. This is an important event in a series of activities taking place within the framework of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Japan.

According to the Department of Preventive Medicine, Vietnam is one of many countries currently recording an increase in cases and deaths. Since the beginning of the year, the country has had more than 87,000 cases of dengue fever, with 24 deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that in 2023 and 2024, climate change and El Nino could promote mosquito breeding, increasing the transmission of dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases.

Cooperation opens up the opportunity to bring dengue fever vaccine to Vietnam soon. Image 2 — The number of dengue fever cases is complicated, people need to pay attention to preventive measures. Photo: freepik

Takeda's dengue vaccine, TAK-003 (trade name QDENGA), has been licensed for use in more than 30 countries including the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom, Argentina, and countries with similar dengue epidemiological situations to Vietnam such as Indonesia, Brazil, and more recently Thailand. TAK-003 is not currently licensed for circulation in Vietnam.

Test results showed that the vaccine can create immune responses at different levels against all four strains of dengue virus circulating in the world, helping to prevent disease and reduce the possibility of hospitalization in people with dengue fever.

According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the agency that licenses vaccines in the EU, the QDENGA vaccine has been approved for use in people from 4 years old regardless of whether they have been infected or not.

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