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What (not) the government can do against Pfizer’s vaccine decisions

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What (not) the government can do against Pfizer's vaccine decisions

The Italian government has activated the Attorney General of the State to assess the various liability profiles of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer in the event of non-compliance with the vaccine supplies. But the road is winding. Here because

The last doses of Pfizer-Biontech's weekly vaccine load have arrived in Italy in the past few hours. They arrived, as announced, with a shortfall of 29% . And a shortfall is also expected in the next week.nThe lower number of doses (and the distribution of these decided unilaterally by Pfizer) causes important delays in the vaccination campaign.

And so the government has decided to activate the Attorney General of the State, but the question is much more complicated. All the details.

GOVERNMENT ACTIVATES ADVOCATORY GENERAL OF THE STATE

Let's start with the latest news. The Italian government, as revealed by Agi , has activated the Attorney General of the State to assess what legal actions to take against the slowdown in Pfizer vaccine supplies . The legal action will start in the next few days and the competent court will be Brussels (the pharmaceutical company Pfizer is based in Belgium).

UNANIMOUS APPROVAL OF THE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST PFIZER

The involvement of the Advocacy was decided after the State-Regions meeting of 19 January, which was attended by the extraordinary commissioner for the emergency Domenico Arcuri, the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, the Minister for Regional Affairs, Francesco Boccia, and , in fact, the governors of the Regions.

All participants agreed on the need to take legal action against Pfizer. “I received a unanimous solidarity from all the presidents of the regions and autonomous provinces of our country during the meeting that just ended in the presence of the ministers Speranza and Boccia,” said Arcuri.

PAW: PFIZER'S DECISION ON THE VACCINE IS NOT SERIOUS

“Pfizer unilaterally decided not to comply with the contract, and she decided how many doses to deliver and to whom. It's not serious, ”Sandra Zampa, Undersecretary for Health, commented to La Stampa . “In a field as delicate as vaccination, then. But the problem is general. The other European countries are also in difficulty. There is a German Land that has had to completely suspend vaccinations. for this we have invested the lawyer of the state. And rightly Europe is also taking steps to ask with one voice to respect the contract, which I remember was signed in Brussels ”. And for this very reason, activating the Advocacy would also mean bringing Europe into play.

NEXT DELIVERIES OF THE PFIZER VACCINE

Meanwhile, also next week, in the doses of Pfizer arriving in Italy (and in those destined for Europe in general) there will be a shortage, it will be much less than 29%, but to know the exact number of the load we will have to wait for Thursday January 21 or Friday January 22. The Regions, in the meantime, have decided to reshape the deliveries decided, unilaterally, by Pfizer, so that none of them remain without doses and can proceed with the recalls.

Big Pharma has announced that it will recover with the "initial schedule of distribution to the EU starting from the week of January 25", but there is no certainty of a return to full normality of deliveries.

THE COMMITMENTS OF PFIZER ON THE VACCINE

But what normality are we talking about? Pfizer has agreed with the EU full freedom of choice in the delivery schedule. In practice, Pfizer has a constraint on quarterly supplies, but no commitments on different cadences. Pfizer must give Italy 8,749,000 doses by March 31 (another 8,076.00 by June 30) and in theory could deliver 49,000 in these weeks and 8,700,000 on March 30, with all the delays that would ensue.

THE ALL-UP ROAD OF THE LAWYER

And precisely in the name of these agreements, the path of the State Advocacy will be all uphill. Except, writes the Press , if "another path" is not followed. The one that should demonstrate “that the delays have caused health damage, for example by proving that those who have not received the recall in recent days have fallen ill. All uphill road ”.

THE VACCINE DOSES-VIAL NODE

And in reality the question is even more delicate. As Camilla Conti writes in La Verità , Pfizer told the Financial Times that the agreements made with Brussels have "always been based on the delivery of doses and not of vials", reassuring that supplies will be in line with the "labels", or rather with the leaflets.

FROM 5 TO 6 DOSE PER VIAL

And if we talk about doses, then, the accounts change since six doses can be extracted from a vial and no more 5. "The doses for each vial have officially become 6 and Pfizer has decided to reduce deliveries just enough to compensate for the previous, officially motivating the slowdown with the reconfiguration of its production plant in Puurs ”, writes Conti in La Verità.

WHAT HAPPENS IN BELGIUM

In Belgium, too, it is believed that the revision of the deliveries is due to the discovery of the "sixth dose", Sabine Stordeur, project manager of the task force on vaccinations, or the equivalent of Domenico Arcuri, told Le Soir . “We knew there was a chance to rebalance Pfizer's part deliveries. The ball was in their court. And in fact they have readjusted. After all, it is a proven company, no wonder. It was a mistake to believe we could have gained an extra dose, ”Stordeur said.

THE CARRETTA TWEET ON BELGIUM

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/che-cosa-non-puo-fare-il-governo-contro-le-decisioni-di-pfizer-sui-vaccino/ on Thu, 21 Jan 2021 10:16:04 +0000.