THE Department of Health (DoH) should initiate “blacklisting processes” against Sanofi Pasteur, the French pharmaceutical company, which manufactured the controversial anti-dengue vaccine that was later found to pose risks to first-time patients of the mosquito-borne disease, a lawmaker at the House of Representatives said on Monday.

Rep. Rodel Batocabe of Ako Bicol party-list made the call in response to Sanofi’s decision not to refund all the used Dengvaxia vaccines and not to provide financial aid to these individuals, most of who were children.

“Since they don’t want to pay the refund, let’s begin with the legal process, at first, administratively. The DoH should initiate blacklisting processes vs Sanofi. When this blacklisting process gets going, the DoH can make their case there if indeed, Dengvaxia caused the deaths of the children who were vaccinated,” Batocabe, a member of the Committee on Health, said in a news conference.

“In the same vein, the blacklisting procedure will also give the Sanofi the venue to prove that they have no liability over the children’s deaths. Let’s quit all the talk,” Batocabe said.

The DoH suspended the distribution and administration of Dengvaxia on December 2017 after Sanofi admitted that the vaccine could worsen symptoms for children who acquired dengue for the first time after they were given the drug.

Rep. Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte supported Batocabe, saying that blacklisting procedures should be on the table because suppliers with government contracts should undergo strict regulation.

“If it is a local supplier, it would have been immediately blacklisted. Why do we fear a multinational company? If it puts the lives of 700,000 children at risk, then they should be held liable,” Barbers said. LLANESCA T. PANTI