Product liability claims for its new COVID-19 vaccine are something Astra Zeneca doesn’t want to deal with, so they are busy trying to write indemnification agreements with the different countries signed up to buy their vaccine.
“This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in ... four years the vaccine is showing side effects,” Ruud Dobber, a member of Astra’s senior executive team, told Reuters. “In the contracts we have in place, we are asking for indemnification.”
As far as the United States goes, they don’t have to worry: The vaccine is already protected under the 2005 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness, or PREP Act.
SOURCE: Reuters July 30, 2020