Brussels, 19 March (beraking latest news Health) – The contract for the advance purchase of anti-Covid vaccines signed by the European Commission with AstraZeneca is “omitted” in the part that details the ‘liability’, that is the legal responsibility relating to any side effects of the serum, and that part, like almost all, it was blacked out at the behest of society. This was clarified by the spokesman of the European Commission Stefan de Keersmaecker, during the briefing with the press in Brussels.
“We are in favor of transparency and the publication of contracts – he says – but it must be borne in mind that the contract is signed with a private company” which can request, and obtain, the secrecy of certain parts, such as those relating to the liability that one of the most delicate points of the negotiations between the Commission and the pharmaceutical companies, as well as one of the main reasons that led to the delay in signing several contracts (the one with Pfizer-BioNTech was signed only in November 2020).
“What is classified is generally classified at the request of the company,” adds the spokesperson. In general, explains de Keersmaecker, the company “is responsible” for any damage caused by the use of the vaccine it produces. In some cases, however, the responsibility is assumed by the state. What exactly are the circumstances in which the indemnity is triggered, it is not known: they are classified and de Keersmaecker explained that he could not “go into the details of specific cases”.
Well-informed MEP sources had explained that, in general, the Commission had fought for a European liability, i.e. the company remains liable in the event of negligence or willful misconduct, but the State assumes legal responsibility for the unpredictable effects. and vaccine unexpected events, which are possible albeit very rare.
If a side effect is on the order of one or two per million, then it could escape clinical trials, and only emerge at the mass vaccination stage, when the numbers actually jump into the millions. Also for this reason, a vaccine is generally studied for many years, before reaching the market, which obviously could not be done in times of a pandemic, for a simple risk-benefit calculation.
The two types of thrombosis on which the European Medicines Agency Ema will continue to investigate to ascertain whether or not they are extremely rare side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine have a very low incidence: therefore, based on what the source explains, in theory could fall within the scope of indemnity, as they are impossible to predict. But this is only a hypothesis, because the contract in that part remains secret.