Pfizer Wants To Sell its vaccine In India but Demands Indemnity : How Cute
Pfizer, the US drug manufacturer wants to sell its vaccine in India and earn huge profits. However the Company wants legal protection from any claims linked to the use of its COVID vaccine in one of the world’s biggest markets. Reminds one of Bhopal Gas Tragedy and Carbide.
India has not given any manufacturer of a COVID vaccine indemnity against the costs of compensation for any severe side-effects, which is a condition Pfizer has obtained in many countries where its shots have already been widely rolled out, including Britain and the US. Well, what should be asked is, have these countries given clearance to COVAXIN ? So naturally, India will also not give clearance with out adequate trials and naturally no INDEMINITY.
“The whole problem with Pfizer is the indemnity bond. Why should we sign it?” said an Indian Government source with direct knowledge of the matter. “If something happens, a patient dies, we will not be able to question them (Pfizer). If somebody challenges in a court of law, the Union Government will be responsible for everything, not the company,” the source added.
The second source said Pfizer had been consistent in its position on indemnity and was not planning to change its approach for a deal with India. Then sim0ly there will be no deal. We have already vaccinated over 190 million Indians that is more than half the population of USA, though it is just 14.5 of the Indian population. By August this figure should increase considerably with increased production of vaccine within the country including the Russian Sputnik vaccine.
India, which was facing a shortage of shots as COVID cases soared, pledged last month to fast-track approvals for overseas vaccine makers, including Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson.
However, none have since sought permission from India’s drug regulator to sell their vaccine in the country because they may be afraid of failing the local trials. They also know that compared to Covaxin, there shots are over priced.
For approval of any vaccine in India, a local trial is a must. Also, Pfizer could not finalise terms of a supply agreement, including indemnity, if the vaccine was not first authorised for use in India.
Pfizer withdrew its application for emergency use authorisation for the vaccine developed with Germany’s BioNTech in February after India insisted on such a trial.
But three other shots on sale in India, developed by AstraZeneca, Russia’s Sputnik-V and Bharat Biotech in collaboration with state-run Indian Council of Medical Research, have completed the small-scale safety trials.
Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chief executive, said on May 4 that he was hopeful that the government would change its policy of local trials and that a path to delivering the drug maker’s shots in India could be found.
Mr Burma, India is not going to change its policy just because you are an American Company.Please clear yourself of all such delusions. One must wonder, how this Company would have behaved, in case India did not have its own Covaxin and was not manufacturing Covishield ?
