No, this came across my grapevine va Twitter feeds that watch a couple of months ago.
Pfizer Inc., the US-based manufacturer of the COVID-19 vaccine, took advantage of its near-monopoly and other countries’ desperation to impose unfair contracts on them, a new report shows.
On Tuesday, Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy group in the US, disclosed a number of unfair clauses in secret contracts that Pfizer reached with Albania, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, the EU, Peru, the US and the UK.
One of the most serious issues with the contracts highlighted in Public Citizen’s report, was the waiver of sovereign immunity, the principle of international law that a state’s decisions are not subject to jurisdiction by foreign courts. In contracts with Pfizer, the governments of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Peru promised to waive sovereign immunity in the event of legal disputes. With the exception of Peru, all these states agreed to give up “immunity against precautionary seizure of any of [their] assets.”
Several contracts also stipulated that disputes would be dealt with not in an official court, but by arbitration under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce and the law of New York, where Pfizer headquarters is located.
Furthermore, Pfizer’s contracts banned those countries from purchasing or otherwise receiving its vaccine from third parties. The contract with Brazil, to take one example, restricts Brazil “from accepting Pfizer vaccine donations from other countries or buying Pfizer vaccines from others without Pfizer’s permission,” Public Citizen said in its report.
Another unreasonable part of the contracts was that they make governments responsible for potential breaches of intellectual property (IP) rights. Pfizer’s contract with Colombia requires the government to “foot the bill” if a third party claims IP violations in regard to the development, manufacture or sale of Pfizer’s vaccine.
“Pfizer also explicitly says that it does not guarantee that its product does not violate third-party IP,” the report said.
Another difference with ordinary contracts is language absolving Pfizer from responsibility for disruptions to the supply schedule. Contracts with Brazil and Colombia state that the governments “shall be deemed to agree to any revision.”
Pfizer’s contracts with several countries also include clauses that either absolve or minimize the company’s legal responsibility. The company managed to secure a commitment from these countries to keep the contracts in strict confidentiality, presumably out of concern about blowback from its rivals or the public.
Pfizer objected to the report, saying that it “has absolutely no intention of interfering with any country’s diplomatic, military, or culturally significant assets.”
But Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program, said that Pfizer used “its control of scarce vaccines to win special privileges from people that have little choice.”
https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/1016130.html