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INCLUDING USED STOCKS

Case vs. Sanofi for full Dengvaxia refund to be filed soon —Duque


Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Thursday said a case against Sanofi Pasteur is being prepared to demand a full refund for Dengvaxia vaccines, including stocks that have been used.

In an interview on CNN Philippines on Thursday, Duque revealed they were building up the case against the French pharmaceutical giant and that they plan to file it together with the Office of the Solicitor General  "soon."

"To me, one, is for Sanofi to return the equivalent of even the used stocks of Dengvaxia, which is about P1.8 billion. Remember, we were able to successfully get them to refund P1.16 billion from the unused portion of the vaccines," Duque said.

"So we'll be soon filing this with Office of the SolGen. They're helping us do a case build-up and hopefully, we'll have a strong case, but that really depends on the pieces of evidence that we will be able to put together," he added.

The Aquino administration spent a total of P3.5 billion to purchase the anti-dengue vaccine.

Controversy sparked after Sanofi Pasteur in November 2017 advised against prescribing the said vaccine to patients who have not had the dengue in the past, since it may cause severe dengue in the long run.

At least 830,000 public school students from Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Metro Manila, and Cebu received the vaccine under the Department of Health's dengue vaccination program.

Zuellig Pharma, the local distributor of Dengvaxia manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur, has refunded the amount of around P1.16 billion covering the unused vials of Dengvaxia vaccines.

However, it has twice declined the government's request for a refund of the used doses, saying in a statement that it "would imply that the vaccine is ineffective, which is not the case." — Margaret Claire Layug/MDM, GMA News

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