An experimental vaccine against dengue fever being developed by Sanofi proved about 60 per cent effective in its second large clinical trial. The results could clear the way for the introduction of the world’s first inoculation against the mosquito-borne disease that is becoming an increasing threat. Sanofi, a French drug company, said on Wednesday that use of the vaccine cut the risk of getting dengue by 60.8 per cent in the trial, which involved 20,875 children aged 9 to 16 from several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Those who received the vaccine also had an 80 per cent lower risk of being hospitalized for dengue compared with children who received injections of a placebo.

The results are roughly similar to those from the first large clinical trial, in which the vaccine reduced the incidence of dengue fever by 56.5 per cent. That trial involved about 10,000 children in Southeast Asia. “For the first time ever, after 20 years of research and industrial commitment, dengue is set to become a vaccine-preventable disease,” Olivier Charmeil, chief executive of Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine division of Sanofi, said in a statement. The company said it would submit the data to health authorities in countries in which dengue is a public health priority.

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