The Dengue Vaccine Initiative (DVI) is a consortium of organizations working to lay the groundwork for dengue vaccine introduction in endemic areas so that, once licensed, vaccines to prevent dengue will be swiftly adopted. DVI builds on the momentum and capabilities of the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative (PDVI) and focuses on creating an enabling environment for vaccine introduction and on maintaining a pipeline of vaccine candidates.

DVI continues the work of the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative, or PDVI, established in 2001.  PDVI was initiated to stimulate development of a safe and effective dengue vaccine for use in children in developing countries.  When the PDVI began, there were few dengue vaccine candidates in clinical development and limited information on the magnitude of the dengue disease burden and related economic costs.  There were also no modern clinical guidelines, no clear regulatory pathways to guide development of vaccine candidates, no good test for routine diagnosis of dengue in clinical practice, and no internationally standardized way to measure either beneficial or potentially harmful responses to vaccination.

PDVI, working with an extensive network of partners, helped to address these gaps through a range of activities, successfully accelerating the progression of several dengue vaccine candidates, establishing the degree to which dengue is underreported in routine reporting systems and collaborating with the WHO to produce modern guidelines for the clinical evaluation of dengue vaccines and standard tests to measure and compare the responses to different vaccines.

DVI is creating an environment for accelerated vaccine introduction by conducting evidence-based research to inform policy, both at the global level and for select first-to-introduce countries.  As a product-development partnership, DVI is focused on using the knowledge and expertise of its members to accelerate the development and distribution of a dengue vaccine.

DVI builds and expands on this history through working in partnership with governments, industry and the scientific community to increase the priority given to dengue vaccines at the global level and work for a world free of dengue.