On Dec. 10, 1992, the Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus vaccine inactivated (JE-Vax by Research Foundation for Microbial Diseases of Osaka University [BIKEN]) was licensed.

JE is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia. The World Health Organization (WHO) acted as a facilitator for the development of new JE vaccines that are safer, require fewer doses, and are more suitable for public health use, in particular, in disease-endemic developing countries.