Singapore: Countries under the clutches of Dengue can now breathe a sigh of relief, as a drug giant Sanofi Pasteur announced a breakthrough in the development of a dengue vaccine. According to a news agency, the vaccine would be ready by late 2015.

In a two-day gathering at the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Dengue Summit, vice president of Sanofi Pasteur, Mr Guillaume Leroy declared that the clinical trials conducted for the vaccine were successful.

The vaccine demonstrated a high success rate with a 50 percent reduction in the number of dengue cases in a group of about 10,000 participants from Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.

Mr Leroy described this as a critical milestone in the 20 year long discovery. He claimed that the completed results of all the tests would be available by the end of the year.

He further added that by early 2016, Sanofi Pasteur will start applying for licenses in global mandates. Mr Leroy recalled the formulation of the vaccine as a very difficult task as the virus had four different strains and no animals including monkeys were suitable for testing.

WHO said that it would conduct an independent review study once the results are completely declared. WHO coined this as a remarkable innovation, as dengue affected nearly 100 million people each year, world wide. Once the vaccine is approved, the company will be able to produce nearly 100 million doses each year in the firm's $350 million production plant located in France.