French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur must test the Dengvaxia vaccine on American soldiers on peacekeeping missions in the Philippines and other dengue-prone countries around the world, Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel said on Sunday.
“American soldiers on training missions here would be suitable test subjects in further Dengvaxia human clinical trials, considering that the US military itself has for years been trying to develop an effective vaccine against dengue,” he said.
He reacted to Sanofi’s plan to seek US Food Drug Administration approval for Dengvaxia to be sold and used in America despite legal woes and public outcry in the Philippines over the deaths of some children who had received the Dengvaxia vaccine.
“In retrospect, Sanofi should have sought FDA approval for Dengvaxia before introducing the vaccine here in the Philippines, and before our own public health and drug regulators allowed the use of the biological preparation on our children,” he said.
“This is a matter of public record. In fact, at one point, a joint US Navy and Army research program actually began human clinical trials for another candidate vaccine against dengue,” he added.
Pimentel is the chairperson of the House committee on good government and public accountability that investigated the government’s questionable procurement of Dengvaxia vaccines at P3.5 billion for the mass vaccination of more than 830,000 school children.