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Takeda targets global vaccine market after approval of dengue jab

Treatment is new weapon against mosquito-borne disease that kills 20,000 people a year

Takeda has secured its first approval outside Japan for a vaccine. Photograph: Laurie Dieffembacq / AFP via Getty Images

Jamie Smyth
Kana Inagaki
Tue Aug 30 2022 - 17:39

Takeda has said approval of its dengue fever vaccine in Indonesia marks a big step towards the company’s goal of creating a global vaccine business that would compete with larger rivals such as GSK, Sanofi and Merck.

Gary Dubin, president of Takeda’s global vaccine business, said the approval of Qdenga on August 22nd is the first achieved outside of Japan by the company for a vaccine and could generate up to $1.6 billion (€1.6 billion) in annual sales.

Anticipated approvals by regulators in Europe and elsewhere would make the vaccine a key weapon in the global battle against the mosquito-borne disease that infects up to 400 million people and kills about 20,000 a year, he said.

“This is a very important milestone,” Mr Dubin said in an interview. “Takeda took the decision a number of years ago to globalise its vaccine business ... Licensure of Qdenga in Indonesia is the first step in achieving that global ambition.”

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Analysts say Takeda faces a challenge to deliver on its decade-old strategy to compete with more established international rivals in the global vaccine market.

Takeda has adopted a cautious approach to investing in vaccines and has a limited pipeline of opportunities. Analysts say chief executive Christophe Weber, who headed GSK’s vaccines business before joining the Japanese group, is taking a different approach to bigger global rivals to offset the challenges posed by scale and experience.

“Takeda’s policy is very clear on vaccines. It’s a step-by-step approach so they won’t take big risks to invest aggressively in everything,” said Citigroup analyst Hidemaru Yamaguchi in Tokyo. As a result, its pipeline may be slim and its expansion slow as it aims to turn a promising vaccine into a global cash cow.

Mr Dubin said one of the company’s brightest prospects is for a vaccine targeting another mosquito-borne disease, the Zika virus. Takeda is collaborating with the US government, which has agreed to supply up to $312 million in funding to the development programme.

Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome, a charitable trust, and an expert on dengue fever, said the vaccine is a big business opportunity for Takeda because so many middle-income countries such as India, Brazil, Vietnam and Indonesia were affected by dengue. A rival vaccine developed by Sanofi had run into problems, he said. — Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022

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