Would the Pfizer laboratory offer the most drastic – and questionable – contractual conditions to certain countries interested in its vaccine against Covid-19?
This statement is relayed by many Internet users, thanks to a video intervention by Michèle Rivasi, September 23, within the “Independent Scientific Council”. A regular meeting organized by the Réinfo Covid collective, opposed to vaccines and critical of the government’s health measures.
The deputy @MicheleRivasi at the CSI: many African and Latin American countries refuse Pfizer vaccines because the laboratory asks these countries to mortgage part of their national wealth to face possible lawsuits following possible side effects pic.twitter.com/nW4Reu1eVB
– Mouâd Boutaour Kandil (@boutaour) September 24, 2021
“Another thing I would like to teach you: there are many African countries [et d’Amérique Latine, dont l’Argentine] who refuse, for example, doses of Pfizer and doses of Moderna. Why ? […] Pfizer and Moderna tell them: “OK, we sell you the doses, but on one condition: you accept that if ever there are side effects, it is your country that will pay the indemnities. we do not trust you, you do not have enough capital, we ask you to mortgage the wealth of your country, “” says the MEP in this 2-minute sequence that has gone viral.
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Contacted by 20 minutes to find out more about the countries that would be concerned and the sources of this assertion, Michèle Rivasi’s team quotes in particular
a February 2021 survey produced by the NGO Bureau of investigative journalism.
This affirmed, thanks in particular to the testimonies of local officials, that the contractual negotiations of Pfizer with certain Latin American countries, of which Argentina, amounted to a form of “ransom” in view of the conditions requested and of the urgency to obtain vaccine doses.
“The negotiators [de Pfizer] sought additional compensation against any potential individual legal action in the event of post-vaccination adverse reactions. In Argentina and Brazil, Pfizer asked for sovereign assets [en guise de garantie] for any potential future legal costs, ”the article went on to explain the reasons why neither Brazil nor Argentina signed a contract with Pfizer at the time.
“The law is not compatible with some of Pfizer’s contractual requirements”
Since then, Argentina has relied on a combination of Sputnik V vaccines and Moderna or AstraZeneca to compensate for delivery delays, as reported International mail in August 2021. A few months earlier, Nicolas Vaquer, director of Pfizer Argentina,
explained to local deputies the lack of agreement between the company and the country by the fact that “today, the law is not compatible with some of the contractual requirements of Pfizer”.
As for the “African countries” mentioned by Michèle Rivasi, her team again cites an investigation by the Bureau of investigative journalism, this time dated April 2021, concerning South Africa. The NGO argued that Pfizer had tried to convince the government to mortgage sovereign assets as compensation against possible legal proceedings for adverse effects.
The Minister of Health at the time, Zweli Mkhize, deplored on this occasion contractual clauses “difficult and sometimes unreasonable”, even judging the demand on sovereign assets “too risky”. Pfizer has since dealt with these conditions and delivered its first doses of vaccine to South Africa. last may.