Posted on 08/01/2020 10:25:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
AstraZeneca has been granted protection from future product liability claims related to its COVID-19 vaccine hopeful by most of the countries with which it has struck supply agreements, a senior executive told Reuters.
With 25 companies testing their vaccine candidates on humans and getting ready to immunise hundred millions of people once the products are shown to work, the question of who pays for any claims for damages in case of side effects has been a tricky point in supply negotiations.
“This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in ... four years the vaccine is showing side effects,” Ruud Dobber, a member of Astra’s senior executive team, told Reuters.
“In the contracts we have in place, we are asking for indemnification. For most countries it is acceptable to take that risk on their shoulders because it is in their national interest,” he said, adding that Astra and regulators were making safety and tolerability a top priority.
Dobber would not name the countries.
EU officials told Reuters this week product liability was among contentious points in European efforts to secure supply deals for potential COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson.
The United States, however, already has a law to exclude tort claims from products that help control a public-health crises in the form of the 2005 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness, or PREP Act.
AstraZeneca, Britain’s second-largest drugmaker, has pledged to supply a total of more than 2 billion doses at no profit in agreements with the United States, Britain and European countries, among other nations and organisations.
Astra’s deals differ from most rivals because it has secured government backing for production and development efforts, while competitors such as GlaxoSmithKline are looking to negotiate a price for finished product
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
Bill Gates was the one pushing for indemnification from lawsuits.
He said that even if only 1 in 10,000 people have a bad reaction, if this thing is mandatory and administered by the State there could be 700,000 worldwide who have bad reactions
This indemnification provision is not unusual. It’s the flip side of the legal authority a government has to force a pharmaceutical company to market a product that has a broad public benefit and sell it at a discounted price.
Pretty sweet. Almost worth going into the drug manufacturing biz.
If it becomes mandatory, be prepared for lots of GSW hospitalizations.
If any vaccine becomes mandatory they will have to find me and force me to take it.
What could possibly go wrong?
According to the FR lemming brigade, nothing.
Seeking immunity from lawsuits makes me super confident to take their hypodermic needle.
C’mon, Freepers. Don’t you see the ads on TV all the time from ambulance chasing lawyers claiming that everything causes cancer and you, too, can get in on the payday?
You can bet that lawyers are the biggest squawkers about this. Drug companies have rushed to get these vaccines ready and are now doing trials to see how they work and what side effects there are. If people want a vaccine by this fall, then there is too little time to do a thorough vetting.
I agree that nothing should be mandatory, but if the drug companies do what they can to make the best possible vaccine, and if people want it, then they should have some protection from bogus lawsuits. Lawyers are a plague on this nation.
Why aren’t all businesses exempted from WuFlu suits?
Almost every small biz owner I’ve met in the last few weeks is terrified of getting sued. And that fear is making retail shops and restaurants so unpleasant to patronize that I’ve stopped trying.
And from what they’re telling me, I’m not alone in feeling that way.
“Why aren’t all businesses exempted from WuFlu suits?
Almost every small biz owner I’ve met in the last few weeks is terrified of getting sued. And that fear is making retail shops and restaurants so unpleasant to patronize that I’ve stopped trying....”
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Liability protection is something McConnell is insisting needs to be part of any new Coronavirus legislation coming out of the Senate. Mitch is on the side of the angels on this issue.
this is why no one should be rushing to take this crap
phuck bill gates with a rusty pitchfork
‘And that fear is making retail shops and restaurants so unpleasant to patronize that I’ve stopped trying.’
that’s true; but even worse than that are a lot of the patrons themselves, who somehow think they are going to be infected with a lethal virus simply by encountering someone...
The ones I’ve been in aren’t getting that much traffic. I stopped at a local restaurant recently, thinking to get a bite. It was really hot outside, hoped to eat in. No seats available thanks to reduced seating, but plenty outside, at tables on the asphalt. In the heat. At the same price. I didn’t stay. I’ve eaten there before, and when the place has been packed. Food and service are great. But if they’re still in biz after this season I will be amazed.
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