
The efficacy and safety of a dengue vaccine are linked to each other as two sides of the same coin, and Qdenga’s phase-3 trial data need to be understood through this lens.
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India’s drug regulator just approved the country’s first dengue vaccine, Qdenga. It is designed and claimed to protect against the four serotypes of the dengue-causing virus, called DENV-1 to DENV-4. Young children as well as adults (aged 4-60 years), irrespective of whether they have had dengue before, may be vaccinated with Qdenga.
More than 40 countries have already approved Qdenga, which is manufactured by the Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda. That said, data from clinical trials that Takeda published in 2019, 2020, and 2024 on the vaccine’s efficacy raise a specific concern about its abilities.
Published – July 27, 2026 09:00 am IST
