India’s first Covid-19 vaccine was administered on January 16th of 2021. Prior to that date, negotiations with Pfizer and Moderna lead to a specific caveat. Essentially, the pharmaceutical giants would only agree to distribute their product to the people of India if an indemnity clause was signed by the government. Given the ultimatum, the countries health minister said no to Moderna and Pfizer. This situation is bad for a plethora of reasons.
First, the table needs to be set. Just so it’s clear, an indemnity clause is a section of a contract with a list of conditions freeing one party from liability in the event their product harms others. In the case of both Pfizer and Moderna, they wanted immunity from Indian law. This kind of behavior from pharmaceutical companies is unacceptable especially during a global pandemic.
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