Despite the complaints of the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, about the contract that his Government signed with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, to supply the country with anticovid vaccines, these would be invalidated by the same agreement.
This is because in section 14.1 of the aforementioned document, to which LISTÍN DIARIO had access, it is stipulated that the country waives the right to claim to the company in question for delays in the delivery of the doses.
“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,” reads part of the text.
Said numeral also exempts AstraZeneca from responsibilities in case the vaccine is not effective or safe; if the storage or transport conditions are not adequate, or if there is no appropriate technique at the point of administration of the inoculation.
Also, according to the content of the contract, the Dominican Government must pay the agreed amount in full: 40 million dollarsat the agreed price of US$4 for each dose.
This is established in the appendix on the method of payment, where it is indicated that the State must cover the total price in three partial payments.
The first was a disbursement of 20% of the total amount (about 8 million dollars) on the date of entry into force of the contract, which occurred when the National Congress approved purchase in November 2020.
Another payment of 40% (US$16 million) when the vaccine was approved by the health authorities. This happened at the end of December of that same year, when it was reception by the General Directorate of Medicines, Food and Health Products (Digemaps) of the Ministry of Public Health.
Finally, remaining money should have been made when the date of the transfer was confirmed. first delivery of vaccines, since this batch of 478,000 doses arrived in the Dominican Republic in June 2021.
Regarding the time in which they should have been paid, the contract indicated that “all payments under the contract will be payable within 30 days after the date of the invoice.”
Cancellation
If the Government decides to cancel the contract with AstraZeneca, in any way would be obliged to make the paymentssince the contract contemplates that a series of stipulations will remain in effect, and among them are those referring to the payment method.
delays
Although the contract specified that the 10 million vaccines would be delivered in the semester of 2021 between the months of March and October, these inoculations were never shipped in compliance with this schedule, and the order has not been completed either.
What happens if the Government does not accept the missing doses?
For his part, Abinader insists that he will not receive the AstraZeneca vaccines if they arrive at an inappropriate time for the country, threatening to take this company to a arbitration international.
“What I am not going to allow is that the national interest is affected by accepting vaccines that we cannot use later and the Health Cabinet has already informed you: either they do not deliver them to the extent that we need them or there will be arbitration and we will go to court”, stated the president.
However, the company also protected itself in the contract for this type of situation, with a part of the agreement indicating that, if the country refuses to accept the shipment, or store it, after five days AstraZeneca will be able to resell them to a third party, or failing that, destroy them.
“To the extent Buyer has not agreed to shipment of those doses by the end of the 5 (five) business day period and either party does not agree to AstraZeneca’s continued storage of the doses at Buyer’s full cost, AstraZeneca may destroy them at the buyer’s full cost (Dominican Republic) or sell them to a third party.”, read part of the document.
In addition, this paragraph continues, indicating that the State would have to reimburse the pharmaceutical company for storage, distribution and destruction expenses of the vaccines, within a period not exceeding 30 days, provided that supporting invoices of the cost of these actions are provided. .
Change of mind?
This position of the Government would represent a change with respect to this issue, since a year ago the Vice President of the Republic, Raquel Peña, announced that they were not contemplating to sue to AstraZeneca for delivery delays.
“These contracts are signed and must be fulfilled by these pharmaceutical companieswe have, through what is the consultancy of the Dominican Republic, all those contracts are in their hands and the due follow-up is being given,” he said at that time.
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