Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, through its Indian subsidiary Takeda Biopharmaceuticals India Private Limited, have entered into a distribution agreement under which Dr Reddy’s will promote and distribute Takeda’s dengue vaccine QDENGA® across India’s private market for pediatric and adult vaccination. Subject to completion of applicable regulatory processes, QDENGA is expected to become available in India in the first half of 2027. The collaboration follows QDENGA’s marketing authorisation approval from India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) in July 2026 for individuals aged 4–60 years. The approval makes QDENGA the first approved dengue vaccine in India.
Under the agreement, Dr Reddy’s will serve as the exclusive partner for promotion and distribution of QDENGA in the private market for pediatric and adult vaccination. Takeda will retain the rights to promote and distribute the vaccine in India’s public market, along with legal ownership and overall medical and brand oversight.
Through the collaboration, the companies will support healthcare-professional engagement, disease awareness, promotion and distribution of QDENGA across India’s private market in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements. Dengue continues to pose a significant public-health challenge in India, with reported cases increasing 11-fold over the past two decades. A nationwide dengue surveillance study conducted by the Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory of the Indian Council of Medical Research found that all four dengue virus serotypes, DENV-1 to DENV-4, are circulating across multiple regions of the country.
MV Ramana, CEO – Global Generics, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, said, “As the second-largest vaccine player in India, we believe the introduction of India’s first approved dengue vaccine is an important development for the country’s healthcare landscape. Through our collaboration with Takeda, we look forward to making QDENGA available to eligible individuals and contributing to efforts aimed at addressing the country’s dengue burden.”
Dr Mahender Nayak, Head of Intercontinental Markets, International Business Unit, Takeda, said, “Takeda is committed to supporting India’s evolving healthcare needs and expanding access to dengue vaccination. We welcome the recent Parliamentary Committee on Health’s recommendation to consider dengue vaccine for the Universal Immunization Program. This reflects the growing recognition of dengue as a significant public health challenge. In parallel, our private-market collaboration with Dr. Reddy’s will help enable timely private-market access for eligible individuals once QDENGA becomes available in India.”
QDENGA, also known as TAK-003, is a live-attenuated tetravalent dengue vaccine based on a DENV-2 backbone with structural proteins from DENV-1, DENV-3 and DENV-4. It is administered as a two-dose regimen three months apart. The vaccine has been studied in a global clinical programme involving more than 60,000 participants across eight dengue-endemic countries.
Since 2022, Takeda’s dengue vaccine has been approved in 43 countries, with more than 32 million doses distributed worldwide through public and private programmes. The World Health Organization has recommended the vaccine without pre-vaccination screening for use in high-endemic countries, and QDENGA is included in the WHO List of Prequalified Vaccines.
Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, headquartered in Hyderabad, was established in 1984 and provides APIs, generics, branded generics, biosimilars and OTC products across major global markets. Takeda, headquartered in Japan, operates in approximately 80 countries and has more than 245 years of heritage, with a portfolio spanning oncology, gastroenterology, inflammation, rare diseases, plasma-derived therapies, neuroscience and vaccines.
