The success of dengue vaccine evaluation and introduction will rest on formation and operation of partnerships with public and private organizations. The PDVI will join or form partnerships with organizations developing and evaluating dengue vaccines and diagnostics and with public sector organizations involved in introduction of vaccines into national immunization programs.

The development, evaluation and introduction of new vaccines each require formation and sustained operation of a network of partners. No one organization can carry out all the diverse tasks required to achieve the accelerated evaluation and introduction of a vaccine. In addition, for PDPs to be successful, it is important they establish and maintain a dynamic portfolio of product leads. These leads can vary by technical approach or by developers of similar approaches. The important thing is that PDPs not put all resources in “one basket.”

The PDVI has taken advantage of the opportunity to affiliate with several established partnerships working in the areas of dengue vaccine development, diagnostics, basic and public health science, clinical care, and prevention. In the public sector, the oldest network is the WHO Flavivirus Steering Committee which meets regularly and has addressed and supported research, and issued guidelines related to dengue clinical care, vaccine development and evaluation, diagnostics, surveillance and prevention. In addition, the UNICEF/UNDP/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) addresses dengue diagnostics and WHO has a program for global dengue surveillance - DengueNet . Other public sector groups with long-term involvement in dengue vaccines and diagnostics development include the US Army and Navy, the CDC, the NIH, Mahidol University in Bangkok, the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute in Havana, the Ministry of Public Health in Thailand, the Taiwan CDC, and other ministries of health in Southeast Asia and the Americas, usually through their regional WHO organizations.

In the private sector, there has been long term commitment to vaccine development by the large firms Sanofi Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline and by one biotechnology firm, Hawaii Biotech. Recently a number of additional firms have joined the effort to produce a safe and effective dengue vaccine that reflects increased recognition of the market potential and possibly reflects a new more favorable attitude by firms toward “neglected diseases.” (See preceding section and Text Box 1) In addition, a number of companies have produced dengue diagnostics and several are in the process of developing new diagnostics, including PanBio, BioRad, Standard Diagnostics and Roche Molecular Diagnostics.