The world’s first antidengue vaccine, named Dengvaxia, is now available in the Philippines with its official launching on Thursday by its manufacturer, the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur.
With its unveiling conducted at the Zuellig Pharmaceutical Co. in Parañaque City, dengue is now a vaccine-preventable disease in the Philippines and Filipinos are among the first to have access to it.
It marked an important breakthrough in the health-care industry in the world and is expected to lessen the spread of dengue and provide immunity to other people at the same time.
The launching of the vaccine is the culmination of over 20 years of scientific innovation, collaboration and research involving 25 clinical studies in 15 countries around the world, including the Philippines, to address the dengue problem.
According to Ching R. Santos, Sanofi Pasteur country manager, the Philippines is the first country in Asia to approve licensure through the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last December 22, 2015.
“As mentioned, Sanofi Pasteur has been developing the vaccine—for over two decades, because we are really into public health and our vision really is—no one dies or suffers from a vaccine-preventable disease,” Santos said in an interview.
She explained that Sanofi invested resources and gathered experts to come out with the vaccine through clinical trials wherein the Philippines participated in all the three phases.
Santos said doses of Dengvaxia arrived in the country last week and have been made available to physicians starting February 10.
She said an initial 300,000 doses will be made available to the private market.
In the launching and media briefing, the manufacturer of the vaccine also gathered panelists and several experts and physicians who appreciated its importance.
Dr. Rosario Capeding, head of the Department of Microbiology, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, said the vaccine will provide protection from devastation that can be caused by dengue.
“The important thing is the vaccine is now available; it can protect our patients—you know, our main goal really is to prevent the disease, prevent our patients from suffering from devastation caused by dengue,” Capeding added.
She noted that being a mother, herself, she had seen and felt the devastating effects of dengue when her daughter suffered from it years ago and she appreciated the significance of the new vaccine in terms of preventing the painful consequences of dengue disease.
Meanwhile, Dr. Sally Gatchalian, president of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines and secretary of the Philippine Pediatric Society, said that dengue does not have only medical burden but also economic burden.
“There is social burden, emotional and psychological, stress and trauma not only in patient but on whole family as well,” she explained.
The Philippines spends annually about P16.7 billion due to dengue, she said.