Dengue vaccine for FDA approval within this year - DOH

A vaccine against dengue is being readied for registration with the Philippines' Food and Drug Administration within the year, health officials said on Wednesday. With the new vaccine, the Department of Health could soon hasten plans for its rollout within months after FDA approval.

 

“The results are promising and hopefully matapos ang registration nila within the year, para mapagplanuhan na ang paggamit,” DOH spokesperson Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy said in an interview with GMA News.

 

In the first five months of this year, there have been 25,616 cases of dengue in the country, up by about 10 percent from the same period last year, according to latest available DOH data.

 

It took 20 years to develop and test the new vaccine, according to the GMA News report on late evening newscast, “Saksi”.

 

In an interview with GMA News Online in October 2014, Dr. Rosario Capeding, head of the dengue study group of the Department of Health's Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, said the potential anti-dengue vaccine being developed by French firm Sanofi Pasteur seemed to be "safe."

 

"So far, the results are promising... Sa ating participants, walang may serious manifestation or adverse reaction sa vaccine," Capeding said back then.

 

The Philippines was among the five countries in Southeast Asia which took part in the final phase of efficacy studies on the possible anti-dengue vaccine.

 

A total of 3,500 children from San Pablo City in Laguna and Cebu City participated in the clinical study on the potential anti-dengue vaccine. 

 

In April 2014, Sanofi Pasteur announced that it had already concluded the first part of the last phase of efficacy studies on its possible anti-dengue vaccine.

 

The French firm said its vaccine yielded a "good safety profile" and caused "a significant reduction of 56 percent of dengue disease cases."  — ELR, GMA News