60 Years After Eisenhower's Warning, Distinct Signs of a 'Digital-Intelligence Complex'
________
Madlen Davies, Rosa Furneaux, Iván Ruiz and Jill Langlois | 23 Feb 2021
In the case of one country, demands made by the pharmaceutical giant led to a three-month delay in a vaccine deal being agreed. For Argentina and Brazil, no national deals were agreed at all. Any hold-up in countries receiving vaccines means more people contracting Covid-19 and potentially dying.
Officials from Argentina and the other Latin American country, which cannot be named as it has signed a confidentiality agreement with Pfizer, said the company's negotiators demanded additional indemnity against any civil claims citizens might file if they experienced adverse effects after being inoculated. In Argentina and Brazil, Pfizer asked for sovereign assets to be put up as collateral for any future legal costs.
One official who was present in the unnamed country's negotiations described Pfizer's demands as "high-level bullying" and said the government felt as if it were being "held to ransom" to access life-saving vaccines.
Campaigners are already warning of a "vaccine apartheid" in which people living in rich Western countries may be inoculated years before those living poorer regions. Now, legal experts have raised concerns that Pfizer’s demands amount to an abuse of power.
"Pharmaceutical companies shouldn't be using their power to limit life-saving vaccines in low- and middle-income countries," said Professor Lawrence Gostin, the director of the World Health Organisation's Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. "[This] seems to be exactly what they're doing."
Protection against liability shouldn’t be used as "the sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of desperate countries with a desperate population", he added.
Pfizer has been in talks with more than 100 countries and supranational organisations, and has supply agreements with nine countries in Latin America and the Caribbean: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Uruguay. The terms of those deals are unknown.
Pfizer told the Bureau: "Globally, we have also allocated doses to low- and lower-middle-income countries at a not-for-profit price, including an advance purchase agreement with Covax to provide up to 40-million doses in 2021. We are committed to supporting efforts aimed at providing developing countries with the same access to vaccines as the rest of the world." It declined to comment on ongoing private negotiations.
Most governments are offering indemnity — exemption from legal liability — to the vaccine manufacturers from which they are buying. This means that a citizen who suffers an adverse effect after being vaccinated can file a claim against the manufacturer and, if successful, the government would pay the compensation. In some countries, people can also apply for compensation through specific structures without going to court.
This is fairly typical for vaccines administered in a pandemic. In many cases, adverse effects are so rare that they do not show up in clinical trials and become apparent only when hundreds of thousands of people have received the vaccine (a 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine, for example, was eventually linked to narcolepsy). Because manufacturers have developed vaccines quickly and because they protect everyone in society, governments often agree to cover the cost of compensation.
However, the government officials from Argentina and the unnamed country who spoke to the Bureau felt Pfizer's demands went beyond those of other vaccine manufacturers, and beyond those of Covax, an organisation created to ensure low-income countries can access vaccines, which is also requiring its members to indemnify manufacturers. This presents an additional burden for some countries, because it means having to hire specialist lawyers and sometimes pass complex new legislation, so manufacturers’ liabilities can be waived.
'An extreme demand'
Pfizer asked for additional indemnity from civil cases, meaning that the company would not be held liable for rare adverse effects or for its own acts of negligence, fraud or malice. This includes those linked to company practices — say, if Pfizer sent the incorrect vaccine or made errors during manufacturing.
"Some liability protection is warranted, but certainly not for fraud, gross negligence, mismanagement, failure to follow good manufacturing practices," said Gostin. "Companies have no right to ask for indemnity for these things."
Dr Mark Eccleston-Turner, a lecturer in global health law at Keele University, said Pfizer and other manufacturers have received government funding to research and develop the vaccines and are now pushing the potential costs of adverse effects back to governments, including those in low- and middle-income countries.
Pfizer's partner, BioNTech, was given $445-million by the German government to develop a vaccine and the United States government agreed a deal in July to pre-order 100-million doses for nearly $2-billion, before the vaccine had even entered phase three trials. Pfizer expects to make sales of $15-billion worth of vaccines in 2021.
In Eccleston-Turner's opinion, it looks as if Pfizer "is trying to eke out as much profit and minimise its risk at every juncture with this vaccine development, then this vaccine roll-out. Now, the vaccine development has been heavily subsidised already. So there's very minimal risk for the manufacturer involved there."
The Bureau spoke to officials from two countries, who all described how meetings with Pfizer began promisingly but quickly turned sour, and reviewed a report by the Brazilian ministry of health.
The Argentinian ministry of health began negotiating with the company in June and President Alberto Fernández held a meeting with Pfizer Argentina's chief executive the next month. During subsequent meetings Pfizer asked to be indemnified against the cost of any future civil claims. Although this had never been done before, congress passed a new law in October allowing it. However, Pfizer was not happy with the phrasing of the legislation, according to an official from the president's office. The government believed Pfizer should be liable for any acts of negligence or malice. Pfizer, said the official, disagreed.
Please go to Mail & Guardian to read more.
Another source on this same topic:
Pfizer Demanding Bank Reserves, Military Bases And Embassy Buildings As Collateral For COVID-19 Vaccines
Source: Mail & Guardian
Madlen Davies, Rosa Furneaux, Iván Ruiz and Jill Langlois | 23 Feb 2021
Pfizer is accused of bullying Latin American governments by demanding they grant indemnity against potential civil claims relating to the vaccine. (Adrian Johnson/TBIJ)
Pfizer has been accused of "bullying" Latin American governments in Covid-19 vaccine negotiations and has asked some countries to put up sovereign assets, such as embassy buildings and military bases, as a guarantee against the cost of any future legal cases, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism can reveal.
In the case of one country, demands made by the pharmaceutical giant led to a three-month delay in a vaccine deal being agreed. For Argentina and Brazil, no national deals were agreed at all. Any hold-up in countries receiving vaccines means more people contracting Covid-19 and potentially dying.
Officials from Argentina and the other Latin American country, which cannot be named as it has signed a confidentiality agreement with Pfizer, said the company's negotiators demanded additional indemnity against any civil claims citizens might file if they experienced adverse effects after being inoculated. In Argentina and Brazil, Pfizer asked for sovereign assets to be put up as collateral for any future legal costs.
One official who was present in the unnamed country's negotiations described Pfizer's demands as "high-level bullying" and said the government felt as if it were being "held to ransom" to access life-saving vaccines.
Campaigners are already warning of a "vaccine apartheid" in which people living in rich Western countries may be inoculated years before those living poorer regions. Now, legal experts have raised concerns that Pfizer’s demands amount to an abuse of power.
"Pharmaceutical companies shouldn't be using their power to limit life-saving vaccines in low- and middle-income countries," said Professor Lawrence Gostin, the director of the World Health Organisation's Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. "[This] seems to be exactly what they're doing."
Protection against liability shouldn’t be used as "the sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of desperate countries with a desperate population", he added.
Pfizer has been in talks with more than 100 countries and supranational organisations, and has supply agreements with nine countries in Latin America and the Caribbean: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Uruguay. The terms of those deals are unknown.
Pfizer told the Bureau: "Globally, we have also allocated doses to low- and lower-middle-income countries at a not-for-profit price, including an advance purchase agreement with Covax to provide up to 40-million doses in 2021. We are committed to supporting efforts aimed at providing developing countries with the same access to vaccines as the rest of the world." It declined to comment on ongoing private negotiations.
Most governments are offering indemnity — exemption from legal liability — to the vaccine manufacturers from which they are buying. This means that a citizen who suffers an adverse effect after being vaccinated can file a claim against the manufacturer and, if successful, the government would pay the compensation. In some countries, people can also apply for compensation through specific structures without going to court.
This is fairly typical for vaccines administered in a pandemic. In many cases, adverse effects are so rare that they do not show up in clinical trials and become apparent only when hundreds of thousands of people have received the vaccine (a 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine, for example, was eventually linked to narcolepsy). Because manufacturers have developed vaccines quickly and because they protect everyone in society, governments often agree to cover the cost of compensation.
However, the government officials from Argentina and the unnamed country who spoke to the Bureau felt Pfizer's demands went beyond those of other vaccine manufacturers, and beyond those of Covax, an organisation created to ensure low-income countries can access vaccines, which is also requiring its members to indemnify manufacturers. This presents an additional burden for some countries, because it means having to hire specialist lawyers and sometimes pass complex new legislation, so manufacturers’ liabilities can be waived.
'An extreme demand'
Pfizer asked for additional indemnity from civil cases, meaning that the company would not be held liable for rare adverse effects or for its own acts of negligence, fraud or malice. This includes those linked to company practices — say, if Pfizer sent the incorrect vaccine or made errors during manufacturing.
"Some liability protection is warranted, but certainly not for fraud, gross negligence, mismanagement, failure to follow good manufacturing practices," said Gostin. "Companies have no right to ask for indemnity for these things."
Dr Mark Eccleston-Turner, a lecturer in global health law at Keele University, said Pfizer and other manufacturers have received government funding to research and develop the vaccines and are now pushing the potential costs of adverse effects back to governments, including those in low- and middle-income countries.
Pfizer's partner, BioNTech, was given $445-million by the German government to develop a vaccine and the United States government agreed a deal in July to pre-order 100-million doses for nearly $2-billion, before the vaccine had even entered phase three trials. Pfizer expects to make sales of $15-billion worth of vaccines in 2021.
In Eccleston-Turner's opinion, it looks as if Pfizer "is trying to eke out as much profit and minimise its risk at every juncture with this vaccine development, then this vaccine roll-out. Now, the vaccine development has been heavily subsidised already. So there's very minimal risk for the manufacturer involved there."
The Bureau spoke to officials from two countries, who all described how meetings with Pfizer began promisingly but quickly turned sour, and reviewed a report by the Brazilian ministry of health.
The Argentinian ministry of health began negotiating with the company in June and President Alberto Fernández held a meeting with Pfizer Argentina's chief executive the next month. During subsequent meetings Pfizer asked to be indemnified against the cost of any future civil claims. Although this had never been done before, congress passed a new law in October allowing it. However, Pfizer was not happy with the phrasing of the legislation, according to an official from the president's office. The government believed Pfizer should be liable for any acts of negligence or malice. Pfizer, said the official, disagreed.
Please go to Mail & Guardian to read more.
________
Another source on this same topic:
Pfizer Demanding Bank Reserves, Military Bases And Embassy Buildings As Collateral For COVID-19 Vaccines
Related:
HONORED TO BE AN ESSENTIAL PUBLIC SERVICE PROVIDER.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.