Duque insists on full refund of gov’t payment for Dengvaxia

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Monday said he would demand full refund of the P3.5 billion the government paid to the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur for the Dengvaxia vaccines that the Department of Health (DOH) junked after the drug proved to be flawed.

Duque, who was in the Senate for a meeting with Sen. JV Ejercito, the health committee chair, told reporters that he agreed with Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III that a full refund was in order.

Pimentel said on Sunday that Sanofi Pasteur should fully refund the P3.5 billion the government had paid the company because “[a]ll the vaccines were defective from the beginning.”

“We will ask for a full refund eventually but for the meantime we want the immediate withdrawal of vials of vaccines that are still stored with our cold chain storage facilities,” Duque told reporters.

The DOH sent a letter to Sanofi Pasteur on Friday to demand refund of P1.4 billion in unused Dengvaxia supplies.

Sanofi Pasteur said on Monday that it had agreed to refund P1.4 billion to the Philippine government for unused supplies of Dengvaxia, but Duque said he had not yet personally received a response from the company.

“Sanofi Pasteur has responded positively to the Philippine Department of Health’s request that we provide reimbursement for the doses of Dengvaxia that were not used by the government in the public vaccination program,” Sanofi Pasteur said in a statement on Monday.

Not related to mess

But Sanofi Pasteur stressed that its decision was not related to any question of safety or quality involving Dengvaxia.

“Our decision to reimburse for unused doses is not related to any safety or quality issue with Dengvaxia. Rather Sanofi Pasteur hopes that this decision will allow us to be able to work more openly and constructively with the DOH to address the negative tone toward the dengue vaccine in the Philippines today,” the company said.

“Sanofi Pasteur strongly believes that this tone is due to a misunderstanding of the benefits and risks associated with the dengue vaccine and a lack of awareness among the general public, particularly parents of vaccinated children, that the overall benefit of dengue vaccination remains positive in high endemic countries like the Philippines,” it added.

Sanofi Pasteur also said it had requested a meeting with the DOH to discuss any questions involving the reimbursement, and to “find ways to inform the Filipino public in a more balanced and evidence-based way on dengue vaccination while also restoring public trust in vaccination programs, in general.”

The DOH paid Sanofi Pasteur P3.5 billion for Dengvaxia supplies in 2015 for a dengue immunization program.

It halted the program last Dec. 1 after Sanofi Pasteur announced that Dengvaxia worsened symptoms in vaccinated people who had no previous exposure to the dengue virus.

More than 830,000 schoolchildren had received at least one dose of Dengvaxia before the DOH could stop the program.

14 kids died

At least 14 of those children have died and the DOH is trying to determine if Dengvaxia is linked to their deaths.

“The Dengvaxia vaccine, which Sanofi Pasteur aggressively promoted and sold to the Philippine government, has undeniably failed to deliver its supposed clinical benefit and safety claims, hence, considered defective under Philippine civil laws,” Duque said in a statement earlier on Monday.

The Senate and the House of Representatives are investigating the controversy and 21 vaccinated children have brought graft charges against former President Benigno S. Aquino III and three members of his Cabinet.

The children also accused the former officials of violating the government procurement law.

Former Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco also has brought plunder, graft and mass murder charges against the former officials for exposing more than 830,000 children to health risks by giving them Dengvaxia.

More charges coming

The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), which is investigating the deaths of vaccinated children, said on Monday that it would bring criminal and civil charges against former government officials over the dengue immunization drive.

“Definitely, someone’s going to be charged. But the health workers and officers, we won’t charge you. You were only misled,” said PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta. —WITH A REPORT FROM JULIE M. AURELIO