Health dept demands P1.4-B refund
THE Department of Health (DoH) on Friday Pasteur for its stock of anti-dengue vaccines, and asked the French pharmaceutical giant to pay for testing on inoculated individuals.
The Health department made the demand Thomas Triomphe, for all unused vials of billion or $27.8 million.
than 830,000 individuals inoculated with the vaccine using a newly developed test to determine their pre-vaccination status, at no cost to the Philippine government.
The DoH also requested documents on all clinical trials and other studies involv proof that these have passed ethics review standards of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development.
- ment, Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd said.
Pasteur aggressively promoted and sold to the Philippine Government has undeniably and safety claims, hence, considered defec
Earlier, Duque said that based - miology Bureau, there were four cases out of 17 deaths due to
Other cases of deaths of children were due to other illnesses or other complications.
However, Duque said there was still no conclusion yet on whether or not the inoculation
- versity of the Philippines and Philippine General Hospital is still evaluating the clinical records of the cases.
The DoH reiterated that it was willing to cooperate with the investigation being conducted by the Department of Justice and would comment on the petition for mandamus before the Supreme Court, asking it and other government agencies to provide free medical services to the vaccinees.
- ter admitting that the anti-dengue vaccine, administered on about 830,000 individuals, may cause a more severe case of dengue for
The Department of Health last month suspended the dengue immunization program based on ordered the recall of the medicine the same month.
The government spent P3.5 billion or around $70.2 million for the immunization program, which began during the time of Health Secretary Janette Garin in the Aquino administration.
Leonen to handle petition vs Dengvaxia
The Supreme Court has assigned a magistrate who will be in charge of a petition of the Gabriela party-list free medical services and treatment to children injected with the controversial anti- dengue
The case was assigned to Justice - ducted by the high court.
Leonen was an appointee of President Benigno Aquino 3rd, who has since been dragged into the controversy over his administration’s approval of the procurement of the vaccine.
Then- Health Secretary Garin -
In a 42-page petition for mandamus, the court was asked by Gabriela Rep. Emmi de Jesus and the Association for the Rights of Children in Southeast Asia to direct government agencies to publicly disseminate on a regular basis the report of a task force formed and designated to monitor and review the school-based immunization program involv same to the House of Representatives and Senate Committees on Health for monitoring.
Named respondents to the case are Duque; Interior Acting Secretary Catalino Cuy; Education Secretary Leonor Briones; Lyndon Lee Suy, National Center for Disease Prevention and Control program director; and Nela Puno, Food and Drug Administration director general.
The petitioners also asked that the government monitor children who were inoculated with the vaccine across the country.
The petitioners also asked that government agencies provide free services including, but not limited to, medical check-ups, consultations, medical treatment and blood tests.
[ Health department] will provide monetary compensation to those who were inoculated - tioners maintain their position that monetary rewards are not enough to compensate for the injury brought to them by this also stated.