A French pharmaceutical company has announced they have developed a vaccine that prevents dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Sanofi Pasteur released results Thursday from its Phase III clinical trials testing the vaccine in Southeast Asia from 2011 through 2013. According to its findings, its dengue vaccine can reduce fever cases by 88.5 percent. The disease is typically spread by mosquitos.

Individuals who take the vaccine will be protected against all four dengue virus serotypes. The effectiveness in the tests ranged from 34.7 percent to 72.4 percent, depending on which serotype they were exposed to. Children ages 2-14 who received the vaccine in three injections spaced six months apart were 56 percent less likely to contract dengue.

The vaccine at this point has appeared to be safe and produces no side effects. In a press conference, Sanofi Parteur's research head on the dengue vaccine research Nicholas Jackson explained the amount of people this vaccine could help.

"To put this into perspective, our vaccine has the potential -- when licensed and approved with the appropriate -- to halve the 50 [million] to 100 million estimated cases of infections a year and nearly eliminate the estimated 500,000 cases that will develop the severe form of the disease."

These large number of individuals that could be protected from the disease is promising news for endemic countries where dengue is a huge problem.

"This is indeed an exciting news for the ministry and few steps have been planned ahead in looking into the feasibility of dengue vaccine in Malaysia," the Malaysian Minister of Health Datuk Seri S. Subramaniam said in a statement.

Vaccine head at Sanofi Pasteur, Guillaume Leroy, said the company would begin to apply for licensing early next year. Sanofi Pasteur's production site has been producing the vaccine since last year in Lyons and could supply 100 million vaccine doses a year once approved.