Reuters: Takeda’s dengue vaccine effective overall in study but with major limitation
“Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s experimental dengue vaccine was highly effective at preventing the mosquito-borne disease in a late stage study, but it failed to protect against one type of the virus in people with no prior exposure to dengue. Takeda’s vaccine was 80.2% effective at preventing dengue among children and teens in the year after they got the shot, according to results of a Phase III study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday…” (Steenhuysen, 11/6).

STAT: A Takeda vaccine for dengue appears effective, but the story is nuanced
“…The late-stage study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, tested two doses in more than 19,000 children and adolescents in eight countries. Breaking down the results further, though, shows a more nuanced story. In one strain — known as DENV-2 — the effectiveness rate was an impressive 97.7%. But effectiveness in two other strains — DENV-1 and DENV-3 — was much lower, at 73.7% an 62.6%, respectively. There was not enough data to assess the extent to which the vaccine mitigated the fourth strain, known as DENV-4…” (Silverman, 11/6).

Additional coverage of the study is available from NPR and Science.