BOGOTA, Colombia (LifeSiteNews) – Officials in Colombia accidentally published contracts from both Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca, detailing the multimillion-dollar deals and indemnification agreements struck between the South American nation and the pharmaceutical giants to import around 25 million combined doses of their COVID-19 vaccines.
While attempting to transfer the confidential information to a regional court following a tutelage filing, Colombia’s Council of State, the supreme judicial authority in the country, mistakenly disclosed contracts signed between the Colombian government and the drug manufacturers on its publicly accessible judicial information system, an RT news report revealed.
Though the mistake was quickly discovered by the government and the documents removed from public access, the Colombia-based non-profit Anticorruption Institute was able to access and copy the information, and later published the leaked documents on its own website “to defend transparency and in a bid to safeguard the fundamental right of access to public information,” they argued.
The 132-page file details the contractual agreement established between the Colombian government and the two pharmaceutical companies, with AstraZeneca’s contract being signed on December 16, 2020, and Pfizer’s on February 2, 2021.
Colombian officials agreed to pay AstraZeneca $6 per dose, ordering a total of 9,984,000 shots from the Oxford-based operation and costing $59,904,000. Pfizer negotiated $12 per dose of their mRNA jab, selling the Colombians 15,000,570 shots totalling $180,006,840. All told, the Colombian government shelled out a hefty $239,910,840 for 24,984,570 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, corresponding to 12,492,285 citizens (around 25 percent of the population) being able to become “fully vaccinated” against the virus.
Meanwhile, vaccine injury firm Children’s Health Defense revealed that the U.S. paid $19.50 per dose of Pfizer’s mRNA jab for COVID-19.
But besides the eye-watering costs associated with importing the experimental jabs, the nation agreed to indemnify the manufacturers from any legal responsibility for adverse events arising from the use of their products.
Pfizer’s contract admitted that “Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s efforts to develop and manufacture the Vaccine are aspirational in nature and subject to significant risks and uncertainties,” and that, accordingly, “the Republic of Colombia will fully assume the risks derived from the acquisition, use and application of the vaccine.”
In fact, Pfizer explicitly stated that “the long-term effects and efficacy of the Vaccine are not currently known and that there may be adverse effects of the Vaccine that are not currently known.” The Colombians were forced to acknowledge that the jab has unknown effects since it is “being rapidly developed due to the emergency circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
On account of the possibility of unknown adverse effects, the drug distributer demanded as part of the contract that Colombia “hereby agrees to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Pfizer, BioNTech, each of their Affiliates … based on the research, development, manufacture, distribution, commercialization or use of the Vaccine … from and against any and all suits, claims, actions, demands, losses, damages, liabilities, settlements, penalties, fines, costs and expenses … caused by, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from the Vaccine, including but not limited to any stage of design, development, investigation, formulation, testing, clinical testing, manufacture, labeling, packaging, transport, storage, distribution, marketing, promotion, sale, purchase, licensing, donation, dispensing, prescribing, administration, provision, or use of the Vaccine.”
Additionally, the government were originally tied into a strict non-disclosure agreement, asserting that they cannot release any information about the details of the costs incurred or indemnities afforded by the contract:
Purchaser may not disclose any of the financial or indemnification provisions contained in this Agreement, including without limitation the price per dose of Product or refundability of the Advance Payment or any information that could reasonably ascertain the price per dose of Product, without the prior written consent of Pfizer.
Pfizer also tied the Colombians into a clause that guarantees the drug company will not be affected negatively by any changes in Colombian law. Pfizer also ensured that the Colombian government pay for each shipment ten days in advance of receiving the goods, and that late payments were subject to interest.
The AstraZeneca contract made similar demands on the Colombian authorities, adding an express indemnification requirement “for death, physical, mental, or emotional injury, illness, disability, or condition … arising from the use or administration of the Vaccine.”
The Colombian supreme court blunder leading to the revelation of the vaccine contracts, is not the first time that pharmaceutical companies have had the details of their international agreements made public against their wishes.
In fact, Pfizer has already had contracts with Albania, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and the European Commission revealed. The formula used for all of these agreements remained consistent, except for the necessary changes according to the purchaser and the costs associated with their order.
An information expert, Ehden Biber explained in a Twitter thread that “[b]ecause the cost of developing contracts is very high and time consuming (legal review cycles), Pfizer, like all corporations, develop a standardized agreement template and use these agreements with relatively minor adjustments in different countries.”
As the manufacturers continue to be afforded indemnity from legal reprisal, the adverse events associated with their formulas steadily rises. The latest data from the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System now shows 571,831 reports of injury following COVID-19 jabs, 55 percent of which followed the Pfizer/BioNTech’s mRNA shot. Overall, 12,791 deaths have been recorded following the use of a COVID vaccine between December 2020 and August 6, 2021.
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