Brazil released the contract it signed with Pfizer

The Ministry of Health violated the confidentiality clause of the contract signed on March 18, 2021 between the Brazilian state and the US laboratory by posting it on its website but had to download it, but a developer named Apolinário Passos downloaded it. again and still is. available online despite pressure, according to Folha de São Paulo.

In the contract, the laboratory assumes that it will make “commercially reasonable efforts” to be able to comply with vaccine delivery, while specifying when it would do so and establishing that one of the variables to be considered is find out if they have the exclusivity of the product on the market.. The text states that “a similar objective to its commercial interest in similar circumstances and taking into account the relevant risks, uncertainties, limitations and challenges of the development, manufacture, marketing and distribution of a new vaccine against the Covid-19, taking into account the following factors: real and potential problems of safety and efficacy, novelty, product profile, exclusive position, the competitive environment then current for such a product, the environment regulatory and product status ”, among other things, as well as the ability to produce it and obtain the products needed for it.

pfizer brazil contract

In addition, he demanded that the Brazilian state recognize and accept the efforts of the laboratory itself to develop and manufacture the vaccine, as well as at the time of signing the contract “the parties recognize that the product has entered phase 2b / 3 trials and that despite Pfizer’s efforts in research, development and manufacture, the product may not be successful due to technical, clinical or failure problems ”. In the contract, which was signed in March this year, Pfizer admits not having passed phase 3, despite the fact that since November 2020 the opposite has been published.

Another of the demands Pfizer has made to Brazil, one of the countries most affected by the coronavirus in the world, is that They will not be able to treat the lab or any of its associates for any failure or side effects that the vaccine may cause.

In another fragment, the pharmaceutical company imposes that five days after signing the agreement, the state must place an irrevocable purchase order for 100,001,070 doses, worth $ 10 each. Brazil had to make a 20% deposit for US $ 200,002,140 ten days after signing the contract, while the total purchase value is US $ 1,000,010,700.

For this, Pfizer would issue an invoice 60 days before the scheduled delivery date, which could not be met, and Brazil would have to pay ten days before the delivery of the batch to be received or 30 days after the invoice was issued. “In all cases, Pfizer will be subject to or liable to a penalty for late delivery,” the contract states.

With regard to legal records and regulations, Pfizer states that it does not allow any type of evaluation of the product by local authorities: “Prior to delivery, Pfizer will meet all conditions (within the applicable time frames) set out in the authorization; however, the purchaser will grant, or obtain on behalf of Pfizer, all exemptions, exceptions and deviations from the country-specific requirements for the product granted or authorized by the governmental authority (including, but not limited to, serialization , applicable quality or laboratory tests and / or submission to the Marketing Information and Approval Form), those requirements which, in the absence of an exemption, exception or exemption, will prevent Pfizer from deliver and market the product in Brazil (…). Pfizer will be fully responsible for defining the manufacturing and testing sites and will perform testing in accordance with the authorization. “Pfizer will not accept local test requests or requests for batch release protocols or requests for sample registrations in this agreement.”

In point 8 of the contract refers to compensation, Pfizer asks the buyer to release them, as well as BioNTech and each of the parties, from the obligation to pay any kind of compensation. for matters involving research, development, manufacture, distribution or application of the vaccine. The company assumes that it will take out insurance to cover the normal functioning of its business, but that it will not be responsible for any kind of consequence due to the application of the vaccine.

In the face of any dispute that may arise between Pfizer and the Brazilian state, the laboratory demands that any legal dispute be resolved in the courts of New York and that Brazil “waive any right to any immunity that it or its assets may have. or acquire in the future. (by way of sovereign immunity or any other form of immunity), including any asset controlled by an agency, autarky, central bank or monetary authority of Brazil, with respect to any arbitration or other judicial process responsible for the homologation or execution of any decision, dispatch or arbitral award, or any composition in connection with any arbitration, whether in Brazil or in any other foreign jurisdiction, including , inter alia, immunity from summons, immunity from jurisdiction or immunity against a judgment rendered by a court or tribunal, immunity against an enforceable decision and immunity against preventive arrest of any of its property “.