December 22, 2015

The Philippines grants marketing approval to Dengvaxia, making it the first vaccine to be licensed for the
prevention of dengue in Asia.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the drug for the prevention of disease caused by all
four dengue types in individuals from nine to 45 years old living in high-risk areas.

December 28, 2015

The DOH-Family Health Office submits a request to Garin to exempt Dengvaxia from being included in
the Philippine National Formulary. This excludes it from review by the Formulary Executive Council
(FEC), which determines what drugs are included on the list.

December 29, 2015

The Budget Department issues a ₱3.5-billion Special Allotment Release Order to Garin's office to
purchase the vaccines.

January 21, 2016

The Philippine Children's Medical Center (PCMC) makes a ₱3-billion purchase order for the vaccines
without approval from the FEC.

February 3, 2016

Garin issues a Certificate of Exemption for Dengvaxia vaccines to be utilized in the pilot implementation
in the National Capital Region, Region III, and Region IV-A.

February 11, 2016

The Philippines, under Health Secretary Janette Garin, hosts the worldwide launch of Dengvaxia.

A vaccine aimed at protecting hundreds of thousands of school children from dengue may have put their
lives at risk.

Around 10 percent of over 800,000 students who were immunized with Dengvaxia, but did not have a
prior dengue infection, now face contracting a "severe disease," according to the vaccine's manufacturer
Sanofi Pasteur.

Following the announcement, the Department of Health (DOH) halted its nationwide dengue
immunization program and has demanded billions in pesos as a refund for the vaccines.

Meanwhile, both Congress and the Justice Department are digging deeper into the controversy, with
officials from the current and previous administrations pointing fingers at each other.
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee will resume on Wednesday its probe on the Dengvaxia controversy.

The Senate panel has issued subpoenas on Monday to Public Attorney's Office (PAO) Chief Persida
Acosta and PAO Forensics Director Dr. Erwin Erfe, to shed light on their investigation on the deaths
allegedly caused by the dengue vaccine.

Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chair Richard Gordon earlier said they have been inviting the two PAO
officials to attend the hearings, but the officials failed to show up for the third time on February 6.

Senator JV Ejercito during the last hearing moved to subpoena the two PAO officials.

Ejercito questioned why the PAO was not working with the University of the Philippines-Philippine
General Hospital (UP-PGH) panel of experts, which investigated the death of 14 dengue patients
vaccinated with Dengvaxia.

"Government agencies have to work together. Bakit ayaw makipagtulungan ng PAO sa experts ng UP-
PGH [Why do they refuse to work with the UP-PGH experts]? I want them to work together," he said.

PAO's findings state the deaths showed "strong links" to Dengvaxia, although it added the results are
inconclusive. Meanwhile, the findings by the UP-PGH showed no direct link between the deaths and the
vaccine.

The UP-PGH's Dengue Investigative Task Force on January 2 reported three out of the 14 children died
of what is called "dengue shock syndrome" after receiving the vaccine. Experts said two of the three
deaths may be caused by vaccine failure.

Health Secretary Enrique Duque III earlier said the UP-PGH's findings will be submitted to the
Department of Justice, the department that oversees the PAO.

Pending the result of the parallel investigations, pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur has rejected
twice the Health Department's request to refund the Philippines of used Dengvaxia vaccine worth P1.8
billion, along with an indemnification fund for the vaccinated children.

"We stand firmly behind our product. Refunding the used doses of Dengvaxia would imply that the
vaccine is ineffective, which is not the case. And at this time, there is also no known circumstance
requiring indemnification," Sanofi said in a statement Monday.

Health Undersecretary Enrique Domingo confirmed to CNN Philippines the department's legal team is
working with the Solicitor General to file a case against Sanofi over the refund.

In January, Sanofi refunded P1.16 billion worth of unused Dengvaxia dengue vaccines.

In December 2017, the government halted its nationwide dengue vaccination program that began in
2016, after 837,000 children were immunized. Sanofi's earlier study showed those with no previous
dengue infection and got vaccinated could contract "severe diseases."