Despite the fact that the Dominican state has agreed through millionaire sums to provide enough vaccines for nearly all of the nation’s residents, the concern now turns to when they will be received and how many would actually arrive.
And it is that in reviewing the agreements the government has made with developers Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca, there are the same clauses that have sparked conflict in other countries over the delivery times of the desired vaccines.
In fact, these pharmaceutical companies have made agreements with several countries that protect them from sanctions in almost all circumstances.
The protection extends to situations such as delays in the delivery of vaccinations and non-compliance with the expected volume of vaccines, scenarios that have been repeated over and over internationally.
One of the example cases occurs in Europe, mainly with the members of the European Union, where AstraZeneca and Pfizer experienced difficulties in complying with the agreed volume of vaccines, facing various delays in the process.
On repeated occasions, Pfizer has had to apologize through statements explaining that deliveries in several European countries, such as Austria, Italy and Belgium, would be delayed, with the common denominator in the messages promising to reduce production speed for a while. and later decrease. increase it and fulfill what was promised.
Despite the delays it caused during the first two months of 2021, Pfizer announced that it has re-evaluated its vaccine manufacturing target for this year from 1.3 billion doses to 2 billion.
Europe has also had problems getting the doses agreed with AstraZeneca, to the point that they had to meet on multiple occasions to find a way out of an issue that has led to accusations and tense exchanges between the two sides.
One of the points of contention between the two parties is that AstraZeneca has been able to live up to the schedule it has with the UK, but it has not been so with the European Union.
Added to this is cronyism speculation, as the United Kingdom is not only a former member of the European Union, but two of the four AstraZeneca laboratories dedicated to manufacturing the vaccine are located in British territory (the other two are located in Belgium). and Germany).
In addition, this vaccination was developed jointly with the University of Oxford, one of the most important teaching and research centers in England, and by extension the United Kingdom.
To this, AstraZeneca’s CEO, Pascal Soriot, said that this was because the pharmaceutical company had signed a contract with the UK three months earlier, and this gave the company time to resolve the malfunctions in the UK factories.
However, Soriot has said they have not committed to deliver all agreed doses, citing the “best effort possible” article of the signed contract.
“In any case, we are not committed to the European Union… it is not a contractual commitment. We said we will do our best, but without guaranteeing that we will get there, ”said the CEO.
This prompted a response from the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, via the social network Twitter.
“The European Union remains united and steadfast. Contractual obligations must be fulfilled, vaccines must be delivered to the citizens, ”said part of the tweet from the European Union official.
The same “best possible effort” clause is contained in the agreement the Dominican Republic concluded with the British pharmaceutical company.
Kyriakides’ reaction struck another nerve in the subject: the contract. This is because the agreement between the European Union and AstraZeneca was called into question by the large number of clauses that were censored by the public, with a lot of information being struck through, making the contract practically incomprehensible, in accordance with the signed confidentiality clause.
The Dominican Republic has also signed a confidentiality clause with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
From the little data that is known, the pre-purchase contract with AstraZeneca and the European Union, signed in August last year, prescribes the delivery of up to 400 million doses.
Regardless, there are more examples of these cases. In Mexico, where we will receive the AstraZeneca vaccines, 1.4 million doses of the Pfizer product were expected, according to the newspaper El País.
According to the aforementioned news portal, this amount was calculated to inoculate about 750,000 people in the Mexican health system, plus other people working on the front lines against the virus.
However, they reported that they had been able to deliver only 675,202 doses of vaccines on Monday this week, shortening the vaccination schedule of the Mexican state’s vaccination plan.
In Dominican Republic
Starting with the agreement with Pfizer, which is basically a “specification” that serves as the basis for the final contract (which will contain more sections than the current document), it has a confidentiality requirement similar to that of the US pharmaceutical. company. done with other nations.
But what Pfizer does have in the country is immunity to potential non-compliance, such as delivery delays or any variation in quantity.
In fact, the company will not face any kind of punishment if some of these scenarios occur, nor will it be held responsible for them, something problematic given that they could not even meet the first 25,000 vaccines promised by the president of the republic. Luis Abinader, for last month.
As far as AstraZeneca is concerned, the similarity of the best possible effort clause is alarming as the contract with the country included a “reasonable efforts” section.
“The activities and effort that a company of comparable size, infrastructure and resources such as AstraZeneca would undertake or use in developing and manufacturing a vaccine, product at the relevant development or commercialization phase, taking into account the urgent need need for a vaccine to end a pandemic leading to serious health problems, restrictions on personal freedoms and economic consequences, all over the world, but taking into account effectiveness and safety ‘, read the part of the agreement that “reasonable best efforts”, with respect to AstraZeneca’s responsibilities.
KNOWING MORE
How many vaccines does RD have?
In total, there are 20 million vaccines that the country would receive through AstraZeneca, Pfizer and the Global Access Fund for COVID-19 Vaccines (COVAX).
About 10 million doses were purchased from AstraZeneca, with the first delivery scheduled for March 21, according to the preliminary delivery schedule stipulated in the contract, with monthly shipments until at least September 2021.
Eight million will come in through Pfizer, although the relevant question is when they will arrive, as the signed tender documents only indicate that they will arrive in batches from the second quarter of this year (between April and June).
The remaining amount will be provided by COVAX, although it is not known when they will arrive in the country