DOH demands full reimbursement for dengue vaccine

MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Francisco Duque III wants pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Pasteur to reimburse the Department of Health (DOH) some P1.9 billion for the Dengvaxia vaccines administered to some 830,000 school children.

In a letter to Sanofi Pasteur head for Asia Pacific Thomas Triomphe dated Jan. 26, the DOH is demanding full refund of all the vaccines purchased by the department for its school-based dengue immunization program. 

“We are demanding a refund of the used vaccines because the purported, reported and claimed protection was not there,” he told reporters after an executive committee meeting with DOH regional directors and officials to come up with “clear guidelines” on how they should address the mess created by Dengvaxia.

Duque was referring to Sanofi’s claim that the newly developed vaccines would protect vaccinees against the mosquito-borne disease.  

As of yesterday, the DOH has documented 26 children who died after receiving the vaccine. 

Duque said they have not received any feedback from Sanofi but the DOH intends to take legal action against the company if it refuses to reimburse the P1.9 billion. 

Earlier, Sanofi had returned some P1.2 billion for unused vaccines after the DOH stopped the vaccination program. 

Clear guidelines

During the meeting attended by World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative Gundo Weiler, the DOH set three interim guidelines, pending the release of reports by a panel of experts looking into the Dengvaxia mess.

“We want to come up with clearer guidelines because this is something entirely new to us. This challenge is in a class of its own. We’ve never seen anything like this before, therefore, we have to review our guidelines and align them with the objectives of ensuring long term surveillance and monitoring of the vaccines,” Duque said.

Among the guidelines are the institutionalization of a mechanism of enhanced surveillance of the vaccinees over the next five years and strengthened case management and patient referral and establishment of a network for both public and private hospitals that can provide service to patients. 

Duque said the interim guidelines are immediately effective once approved but subject to specific period of implementation and revision “as we learn from our experience.”

“The health and welfare of our children is paramount. We’ve had vaccination and you know what happened so we want to make sure that the vaccinees are taken care of,” he said.

‘Resolve vaccine controversy’

Meanwhile, the scenario where parents of schoolchildren vaccinated with Dengvaxia continue to fear for the lives of their children has prompted Bataan Bishop Ruperto Santos to draw a comparison to the time when people felt much anguish during the 1942 Bataan death march.

He asked the Senate yesterday to come out with a fair and truthful report of its investigation and prosecute or punish those guilty of the vaccination program that may have risked the lives of more than 800,000 children. – With Evelyn Macairan