The contract that generated the recent complaints by President Luis Abinader about the “non-compliance” by the pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca, in the purchase of vaccines against Covid-19, contains clauses that, when accepted by the government in 2020, now tie his hands to be successful in international arbitration.
And not only the Dominican government, since the contract was approved by the National Congress without any type of opposition from the legislators.
Specifically, the clause in question that would not allow the government to claim the pharmaceutical company’s apparent breaches would be clause 14 on “Limitation of Liability for Claims Other than Third Party Compensation; Waiver of Guarantees”.
Within the clause, in section (14.1), it clearly stipulates that the country waives the right to claim the company for delays in the delivery of the doses and other questions about the vaccine.
“The buyer (Dominican Republic) waives and releases any claim against AstraZeneca arising out of or related to… delays in the delivery of the vaccine under the contract,” the agreement says.
But it doesn’t just stop there, since it also relieves the AstraZeneca company of responsibility in case the vaccine is not effective or safe or if there are problematic situations with transport, storage or proper inoculation technique.
Another issue established in the contract signed by the government and ratified by Congress is the total payment to be disbursed, about 40 million dollars, at the agreed price of 4 dollars per dose.
In this sense, the contract also establishes that the price of the doses will be exempt from indirect taxes equal to forty million dollars and that the payments owed to AstraZeneca “do not include any indirect tax that may be charged and that if the The buyer will pay additionally at the rate and in the manner established by the applicable laws at that time.
On the other hand, it gives the pharmaceutical company the power to, without the need for the buyer’s consent, “subcontract or delegate its obligation or services to be provided under the contract to one or more of its subsidiaries and any contractor.”
Abinader said he would not receive AstraZeneca’s vaccines if they arrive at the wrong time for the country and threatened to take the company to international arbitration.
“What I am not going to allow is that the national interest is affected by accepting vaccines that we cannot use later,” Abinader said.
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expired vaccines
Given the drop in demand, some batches of vaccines have expired, leading the country to incinerate over 354 thousand doses last February and another similar one would be ready for incineration as of today, which implies a cost of some 2,800 million dollars. .
The Minister of Health, Daniel Rivera, recently reported that the contracts to buy more supplies and 1% of Pfizer’s vaccines expire tomorrow. While there is availability of about 85 thousand doses of AstraZeneca.
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