(Eagle News)—-A Department of Justice panel has found probable cause to indict former Health Secretary Janette Garin over the deaths of children who were administered the controversial vaccine Dengvaxia.
In a statement, the DOJ panel said it also found probable cause to indict several Department of Health officials, and officials of Sanofi Pasteur, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and the Food and Drug Administration on the same charges.
The panel recommended that eight counts be filed against Garin, Dr. Vicente Belizario Jr., Dr. Kenneth Hartigan -Go, Dr. Gerardo Bayugo and Dr Lyndon Lee Suy, Dr. Irma Asuncion, Dr. Julius Lecciones, Dr. Maria Joyce Ducusin, Dr. Rosalind Vianzon, Dr. Mario Baquilod of the DOH; Sanofi Pasteur officials Carlito Realuyo, Stanislas Camart, Jean Louis Grunwald, Jean Francois Vacherand, Conchita Santos and Jazel Anne Calvo; and Dr. Socorro Lupisan and Dr. Maria Rosario Capeding of the RITM.
Maria Lourdes Santiago and Melody Zamudio of the FDA, on the other hand, are facing four counts.
In recommending their indictment, the DOJ panel noted the respondents’ “inexcusable lack of precaution and foresight” when they facilitated, reportedly with undue haste, the “registration and purchase” of Dengvaxia, and used the vaccine in a school-based dengue mass immunization program.
The panel also said it found sufficient evidence the respondents “circumvented various regulations” in the purchase of the P3.5 billion worth of Dengvaxia vaccine, which at that time, was not listed in the Philippine National Drug Formulary or PNDF.
Under Republic Act 9502 or the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008, the government is banned from purchasing medicines that are not listed in the PNDF.
“Holding to account those who neglect to discharge their duties to the public with utmost caution and competence is the best deterrent against the repetition in the future of the criminal neglect exhibited by respondents herein,” the panel said. With a report from Moira Encina
