MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines stands to gain in employment and revenue generation if it becomes a center for vaccine development amid ongoing clinical trials on dengue by French multinational Sanofi.

According to Dr. Lulu C. Bravo, National Institutes of Health (NIH) executive director, the country should tap vaccine development as a health research strength for which it has capability with its highly-competent health research experts, specifically nurses and doctors.

Bravo pointed out that one clinical trial is already employing 100 nurses in the country who would otherwise give away their skills services abroad.

But its capability to host clinical trials may even lead to a more expanded industry – a complete vaccine development industry which has huge market prospects, she added.

“We have to strengthen our capacity for complete vaccine development. We should be able to package it. We already have an initial vaccine plant at RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine),” said Bravo.

Bravo said that other countries, like Vietnam, have started working for its vaccine supply self-sufficiency and have been apparently thriving since.

This should be a challenge for the Philippines since most big multinational pharmaceutical firms will naturally favor marketing of their vaccines in developed countries that have the purchasing power for expensive drugs, she said.

But to protect its own people, Bravo said, it can at the same time generate income, the country can start out a vaccine development sector, initially as a clinical trial center.

“The distribution of these products is also governed by supply and demand. Countries that have the capability to pay are given priority. For example, H1N1 vaccine is first given to developed countries before it is given to us because it involves big investment to put up a plant. What we can do is to make it available for more Filipinos what we (ourselves) can make,” Bravo said.

The Philippines forms part of Sanofi’s clinical trial for dengue vaccine which may be released in the market in three to four years as a revolutionary vaccine that can be the major solution to ending the severe vaccine plague here and other Asian nations.

“Definitely the most effective way to control dengue is through a vaccine. That makes us fortunate to have a vaccine trial in the Philippines,” she said.

The Philippines has the potential to become a center for clinical trials for vaccine as shown by several clinical trials already conducted here. It may also lead to a total vaccine development center.

However, financing is a big hurdle since developing one vaccine requires around $1 billion from proof of concept to post clinical, commercialization stage to be proven safe and effective. And putting up a vaccine plant requires one plant for each disease.

Bravo said the country should tap vaccine development as a health research strength since this will also cause growth of a local research sector.

The Philippines presently ranks third in clinical trial in South East Asia just next to Thailand and Malaysia.

While clinical trials for vaccines are done in developing countries, the research part for pharmaceutical companies do the vaccines generally from developed countries such as Sanofi.

After the clinical trials, the vaccine has to go through Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licensing and registration.

The development of this vaccine that started 10 years ago has been made through a $55-million grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in South Korea. This way, the vaccine will be available right where these are needed in the Asean region.

Clinical trial for the vaccine is already on its Phase 3 which means it is being administered in thousands of people as compared to fewer samples in earlier phases. Other countries that are conducting clinical trials are Thailand, Brazil, and Colombia.

In a multi-pronged approach in solving dengue disease that already caused about 200 deaths as of July, a diagnostic kit that will accurately detect dengue virus contraction of a patient will also be released soon, according to Dr. Jaime C. Montoya, Philippine Council for Health Research and Development executive director. Natural herbs eyed as dengue cure are euphorbia and “tawatawa.”

“President Noynoy (Aquino) repeatedly said if there’s one thing he wants to control, that’s dengue. So we’re doing everything to control it whether through cutting edge or ordinary technology,” said Montoya.

Even the treatment protocol for dengue must be transformed if the Philippines must reduce dengue deaths. While the Philippines has the same level of dengue cases as that of Thailand, it has 10 times more risk of dengue deaths compared to Thailand which has a more effective treatment protocol.

One of the common misperceptions is that dengue patients have to receive copious blood transfusion while proper treatment really involves more intake of water contributing to water balance in the body.