The Department of Health (DOH) said Sunday it is building a case against those who made unregistered drug “Fabunan antiviral injection (FAI),” an alleged COVID-19 vaccine being marketed on Facebook.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had not received product registration applications from the makers of Fabunan.
“To date, there has not been any record of the [Fabunan anti-viral injection] applying with the FDA,” the DOHealth said in a statement.
“They still have not applied for CPR (Certificate of Product Registration). They were already issued a cease and desist order by the FDA. [So a] case buildup is being done already,” Vergeire said.
Stories of alleged infected patients who testified the drug’s effectiveness could be found on the “Fabunan antiviral injection” Facebook page.
Fabunan Medical Clinic Facebook page, however, said that “the management of Fabunan Medical Clinic voluntarily closed its clinic effective April 2, 2020 in compliance with the Cease and Desist Order (CDO) issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) dated April 1, 2020, which prohibits the use of Fabunan Antiviral Injection (FAI). Please wait for official advisory regarding its re-opening.”
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Fabunan antiviral injection
Ruben Fabunan, a doctor, now based in the US, developed the anti-viral drug together with three brothers, who are all physicians. They have a family clinic in a province north of Manila, where the injection is available to their patients.
“FDA has jurisdiction when it comes to the unregistered drug/vaccine, and Professional Regulation Commission for the practice of medicine,” she said.
“We warned them and those who will try out a new drug that this should first be registered with the FDA. They cannot administer this to the public without studies showing its safety,” Vergeire said.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier announced that he would give 50 million pesos to any Filipino who could discover a drug or vaccine against COVID-19.
“We encourage local scientists who may have developed [treatments] to apply with the FDA,” she said.
“We do this for the protection of the public as many unregistered products have proliferated globally, which might hurt people and even cause death,” she added.
Vergeire said that as of now, there had not been any record of the FAI seeking approval from the FDA.