With the permanent revocation of the product registration of the Dengvaxia vaccine, the Public Attorney’s Office is confident that it would have strong evidence against those behind the P3-billion vaccine purchase and mass vaccination of 833,000 school children in 2016.
At a news conference in Quezon City, PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta thanked the Office of the President for its affirmation to totally ban the Dengvaxia vaccine in the country.
“We thank Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea for a two-page decision denying the plea of Sanofi Pasteur Inc. not to revoke Dengvaxia’s certificates of product registration,” she said.
Dr. Erwin Erfe, PAO’s forensic laboratory division chief, said Sanofi failed to comply with the submission of the studies on the background of incidence of viscerotorpic and neutropic-like diseases, preparation for effectiveness evaluation in Malaysia and the Philippines, and pregnancy registry study, giving the Office of the President to prohibit the sale, distribution and use of the anti-dengue vaccine.
“Sanofi has put the lives of 833,000 children as well as policemen, employees of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center and even parents when they vaccinated them with Dengvaxia shots,” he said.
“With the revocation, we see the cases getting stronger against Garin and the rest of the accused,” he added.
He blamed PCMC officials for its purchase request, request order and payments of P3 billion of the vaccine.
“The Food and Drug Administration sent two letters about the serious adverse effects of the Dengvaxia, but then health secretary Janette Garin still approved the PCMC’s procurement of the vaccine,” he told reporters.
In a 2014 study, Dr. Rosario Capeding said 62 percent of those 833,000 children who got the Dengvaxia vaccine who had not yet been infected by dengue would suffer from “serious adverse effects.”
At least 56 criminal cases and 49 civil suits have already been filed against Garin, PCMC executive director Julius Lecciones, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, and other active and retired health officials before the Department of Justice, and lower courts, respectively.
He, however, urged Supreme Court Administrator Midas Gutierrez to act on PAO’s appeal to establish “one Dengvaxia family court” to consolidate all Dengvaxia-related cases.
“Our request has already been pending for two years there,” he said.
“We also call on the Department of Health to help the other Dengvaxia victims who still continue to live and could face the risks of the anti-dengue vaccine 20, 25 or 30 years from now,” he added.