SANOFI Pasteur recently responded positively to the Department of Health’s (DOH) request that they provide reimbursement for the doses of Dengvaxia that were not used by the government in the public vaccination program.
“Our decision to reimburse for unused doses is not related to any safety or quality issue with Dengvaxia,” Sanofi said in a statement.
The company is also hoping that such decision will allow them 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.
“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.
The company reiterated its call to have a meeting with the DOH to discuss any questions they may have regarding the reimbursement.
“…And also 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 company said. Last week, the DOH has demanded from the Sanofi Pasteur to refund in the amount of P 1.4 billion, which corresponds to the remaining unused vials of the vaccine.
In a letter sent to Thomas Triomphe, head of Sanofi Pasteur Asia Pacific, the DOH laid down its demand for Sanofi as it also has another letter requesting Sanofi Pasteur to conduct serotesting of the more than 830,000 vaccines using a newly developed test to determine their pre-vaccination status at no cost to the government.
The DOH also requested documents on all the ongoing clinical trials and other studies involving Dengvaxia in the Philippines, including proof that they have passed ethics review standards of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development.
Meanwhile, the DOH already installed insecticide-treated mosquito nets on the windows of the classrooms at Parang Elementary School (PES) in Marikina City, the school where the ceremonial Dengvaxia vaccination was held in April 2016.
DOH-National Capital Region Director Ariel Valencia said in a news conference that the nets will last from three to five years.
“We are preventing mosquitoes to get inside the classrooms,” he said, adding that the move is also of the agency’s campaign to control the breeding places of mosquitoes.
Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III, who was the first one to install nets on the window of a classroom, also distributed information materials regarding the Dengvaxia and the dengue-vaccination program, as well as met with some teachers and parents of the vaccinated kids to answer their questions.
According to PES Principal Marciana de Guzman disclosed that a total of 349 students were vaccinated in the school in 2016. Only one of them got sick with dengue.
“Ang kaso naming ngayong taon na ’to 12 lang at okay naman lahat, naka-survive. May isang Grade 6 doon at iyong Grade 6 na batang iyon nabakunahan ng Dengvaxia at, sa awa ng Diyos, wala namang epektong iba kung hindi gumaling siya,” she said.
On November 29, 2017, the Sanofi Pasteur announced a “new finding” on its vaccine Dengvaxia, which was used in the government’s mass immunization program involving around 830,000 children.
“The analysis confirmed that Dengvaxia provides persistent protective benefit, against dengue fever in those who had prior infection…. For those not previously infected by the dengue virus, however, the analysis found that in the longer term, more cases of severe diseases could occur following the vaccination upon a subsequent dengue infection,” Sanofi said in a previous statement.
On December 1, 2017 Duque put on hold the government vaccination drive.
After visiting the aforementioned school in Marikina City, the DOH is set to visit schools in Region 3, where there are also other Dengvaxia-vaccinated kids.
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