Duque: It’s up to Palace to decide on Dengvaxia’s fate

MANILA, Philippines — It’s up to Malacañang to decide if it would let Dengvaxia can return to the Philippine market.

“So now the ball is in their court. The next level of appeal has to be the OP [Office of the President]. We leave the OP to decide on the matter because the appeal is now pending,” Duque said during the “Saturday Form at Annabel’s” in Quezon City.

Last February, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permanently revoked the certificate of product registration issued to Dengvaxia after vaccine producer Sanofi Pasteur failed to submit post-approval documents in February this year.

READ: FDA permanently revokes Dengvaxia’s certificate of registration

In 2017, the Department of Health (DOH) stopped its massive dengue immunization program using Dengvaxia after Sanofi said patients who had no prior exposure to the dengue virus might suffer from severe symptoms.

Asked if DOH would continue its mass vaccination for dengue once Dengvaxia is approved, Duque said they should still follow strict conditions.

“The World Health Organization says that Dengvaxia is not recommended for mass vaccination. If you are going to allow the use of Dengvaxia, it should be [under] strict conditions,” he said.

“We need to test it first because the risk of Dengvaxia is to give it to children who never had dengue in the past. It is your duty or the doctor’s to establish whether a child has had prior dengue infection,” Duque, speaking partly in Filipino, added.

/atm