He said the repurposed drugs could save the government time and US$3 billion (RM14.19 billion), the average cost of producing a new drug.

“Many potential drugs are being studied (for their effectiveness against dengue). One of them is the drug for hepatitis C.

“Its effectiveness will be tested in the fourth quarter in four countries – Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil and India,” he said during the inauguration of Dengue Research Visibility Day 2024 at the National Institutes of Health today.

He said stage three of the clinical trials would assess the effectiveness of the repurposed drugs, and stage four would involve double-blind studies.

On Jan 5, FMT reported that Malaysia recorded an 86.3% spike in the number of dengue cases in 2023 compared with the previous year, with 2,715 cases recorded in the last week of 2023 itself.

The number of reported dengue cases in 2023 was 123,133, a significant increase of 57,031 cases or 86.3% from the 66,102 cases reported in 2022.

The total number of deaths reported due to dengue complications in 2023 stood at 100, an increase of 44 (78.6%) from 56 in 2022.

On Feb 9, the Drug Control Authority granted conditional approval to Takeda GmbH’s Qdenga dengue vaccine to combat the endemic.

The effectiveness of the vaccine will be monitored by the product registration holder, Takeda Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

According to the World Health Organization, dengue threatens about half (or 3.9 billion) of the world’s population, with an estimated 390 million infections annually across 100 countries. Despite its prevalence, there is yet to be a specific treatment for the disease.