THE PHILIPPINE STAR

news THURSDAY I FEBRUARY 7, 2O]9

House recommends raps vs Noy, 2 others over Dengvaxia

By DELON PORCALLA
and SHEILA CRISOSTOMO
V)ting 14-4, a joint commit-
tee of the House ofRepresenta-
tives approved yesterday a re-
port recommending the filing
of graft and technical malver-
sation chargcs ;rgainst former
president Benigno Aquino Ill
and two of his former officials
over thc P3.5-billion Dengvax-
ia vaccine controversy.
The committees on gc'od
government and public ac-
'countabilitv as well as hcalth pending consultations with his
headecl by Camiguin Rcp. lawyers whilc Abad said: "I.rirst
Jesus Xavier Romualdo and of all it'$ just a Housc commit-
Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan, teu rcpoft. And it was subiect to
Abad and ex-health secretary
Janctte Carin.
f hree other doctor-officials
of the Department of Health
were also recommended
charged with graft for alleged-
ly "conspiring" wjth the three
officials and giving "undue
advantage" to "favor" French
manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur to
provide the vaccines.
They are doctors Maria
joyce Ducusiry Julius Leccio-
nes and Kenneth Hartigan-Go.
Aquino dedined to comment
a numbcr of amcndntents. The
rcport still needs to be debated
and. actcd upon in tle plenary
sessions. It's not the act of the
cal malversation charges werer Efficacy Study (TIDES) trial
Housc yct." borne out of the fact'ihat thc showcd that its "investigation-
A copy of the report stated special allotment release order al live-attLrnuatccl tetravalcn t
that Aquino - who repeat- indicated itwas for dengue use dengue vaccine (TAK-003) was
edly denied committing any in Regions 3, 4-A and National efficacious in preventing den-
wrongdoing - should be held Capital Region wl]en it should gue fever caused by any of Lhe
Iiable for "approving" the P3.5 have been for augmentation four serotypes of the virus."
billion in just a mattcr of days of the expanded project of in- It added that while review
in December2015, and that he, munization. of the extensive data set is
along wiih Abad and Gariry ongoing, TAK-003 was "well
provided "shortcuts" for its New dengue tolerated with no significant
immediate implementation. YAGGiNE?
"This was done even As this developed, Tokvo-
-safetv concems to date "
Tlie TIDES trial is continu-
though the safety and efficacy based Takeda Pharmaceuric.rl ing and additional results are
of Dengvaxia had not becn Co. Ltd. anr-rounced this week expected later this yeat along
clearly established," a portion that its anti-dengue vaccine with results from other Phase
()f the report read, pointing out appears to be effective in pre- 3 studies.
there was "manifest partiality, venting the four types of the
cvident bad faithorgross inex- . mosquito-borne disease. _ "We are very encouraged by
the perforrnance of our dengue
cusabJe negligencc" on the part Thc company noted the first vaccine candidate in the studv
of all the officials conce..,,..l anialysis of thc Tetravalent Im- This brings us one step closlr
Romualdo said the techni- munization against Dengue to helping the world tackle
the massive burden of den-l
gue," said Rajeev Venkayya,
president of the Global Vaccine
BLisiness Unit of Takeda.
Venkayya added they are
looking forward to publishing
the data in a peer-reviewed
journalas soon as possible.
Takeda also said it is "ad-
vancing the clinical develop-
ment, commercial manufactur-
ing and stakeholder consulta-
tions to support a potential
future global launch of the
vaccine."
The TIDES trial, Takeda's
largest interventional clinical
trial to date, enrolled over 2O000
healthv children and adoles-
cents ages four to 16 years living ;l
in dengue-endemic areas. ]

- With Christina Mendez

P^,e'c Z-