Manila to get refund for anti-dengue vaccine

MANILA: French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi is to reimburse the Philippine government for leftover doses of an anti-dengue vaccine whose use was suspended due to health concerns, the two parties said yesterday.

The manufacturer said the refund had nothing to do with safety issues and was meant to improve ties with the Philippine health department, which is investigating the deaths of more than a dozen children injected with Dengvaxia.

Philippine regulators stopped the sale and distribution of the drug last month after Sanofi warned the shots could worsen symptoms for vaccinated people who contracted the disease for the first time.

The health department said in a statement it had issued a “demand letter” to the company’s vaccine unit Sanofi Pasteur to refund 1.4 billion pesos (RM110 million) for unused supplies of the drug.

“Our decision to reimburse for unused doses is not related to any safety or quality issue with Dengvaxia,” said a statement from Sanofi Pasteur, which did not disclose the agreed amount.

“Rather Sanofi Pasteur hopes that this decision will allow us to be able to work more openly and constructively with the (health department) to address the negative tone towards the dengue vaccine.”

Philippine authorities have been investigating the deaths of 14 children who were among more than 830,000 given Dengvaxia last year in the world’s first public immunisation programme against dengue. Sanofi Pasteur has maintained that no death has been found to have been caused by Dengvaxia. – AFP