Pfizer, a blackmailer?

Background

In February 2023, Quebec MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné put forward a motion in the Ottawa parliament demanding that the government have the Covid-19 vaccine contracts examined in order to ensure transparency and accountability.
In total, Canada bought 169 million doses at a cost of around 5 billion.
As the MP who tabled the motion explained in an interview with Radio-canada^[1]: “We will see whether we paid exorbitant prices and make sure there was no abuse on the part of the pharmaceutical companies on, for example, the quantity of vaccines that were to be bought or on purchase options that were potentially unreasonable”^[2].

Indeed, a report by Canada’s Auditor General had concluded, among other things, that at least 50 million too many doses had been bought, worth around 1.5 billion dollars…^[3]
“If there is something scandalous in these contracts, it will eventually come out”, summed up Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné.
At the same time, the Canadian government had been heavily criticised at the end of 2020 for an approach to the pharmaceutical companies that was deemed far too secretive.
As Matthew Green, NDP critic for public services and procurement, had stated: “Justin Trudeau’s government fought tooth and nail to avoid disclosing any vaccine contract to parliament, claiming that it threatened commercial interests.”^[4]

Quite revealingly, several members of the public accounts committee complained of having received letters from various chambers of commerce and pharmaceutical companies trying to convince them to vote against the motion… “All the letters threatened us in veiled terms,” MP Kelly McCauley told the Canadian newspaper.

The eagerly awaited session to vote for or against the motion, reported by Western Standard News^[5] took place on 23 March, in the presence of the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Moderna and Sanofi.
The vaccine manufacturers argued that this decision could undermine confidence in the security of information about their contracts and their supply chain.
Patricia Gauthier, CEO of Moderna Canada, stated there that “no unredacted version has been provided to parliaments around the world!”,
“We have not done that anywhere on the planet,” added the president of Pfizer Canada, Najah Sampson.

A“serious precedent” that will have consequences, Pfizer warns

The pharmaceutical company warned the Canadian government that publishing the Covid contracts would damage its reputation. The statements of the president of Pfizer Canada implicitly threaten to undermine Canada’s credibility as a business partner:

• “...your investments could leave the country.”
• “Think carefully about our point of view before setting a precedent with unforeseen consequences for Canada’s reputation,”  
• “This would send a clear message to business partners and to companies seeking to invest in Canada that confidentiality guarantees negotiated fairly with the federal government might not be respected.”

However, although it received very little media coverage, the motion was indeed passed, mostly by opposition MPs, whose integrity and courage deserve praise, who decided to ignore the pressure and indirect threats in favour of a transparency that had been demanded in vain for two years!
During April, the eleven MPs on the public accounts committee will therefore be able to examine all the details of the contracts in a closed room, supervised by a clerk, but, as agreed, without being able to record or take notes.
The parliamentarians will thus have access to the price per dose paid by Ottawa to each company, but also to all the clauses to which the government is said to have agreed.

Unprecedented opacity in Covid-19 vaccine supply contracts

This is the first time in the history of medical research that such strict confidentiality clauses have appeared, as noted by the Journal of Law and Politics of New York University^[6]: “The level of redaction required by the NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) of Covid-19 vaccine supply contracts is unprecedented. When compared with previous vaccine contracts, those concerning Covid-19 have almost fifty times more restrictions.”
To date, among the very few Covid-19 vaccine supply contracts that have been made public, crucial terms such as the price per dose or delivery schedules have been systematically redacted.
“This lack of transparency violates international human rights standards because it limits the right to information and, consequently, the right to health.”

Pfizer accused of bullying in Covid vaccine negotiations in Latin America

Moreover, during their negotiations, some pharmaceutical companies were accused of imposing unacceptable conditions for the purchase of vaccines.
This is what was revealed by the article “Retenu contre rançon” published by the “Bureau of Investigative Journalism” on 23 February 2022^[7].
Pfizer has reportedly been accused of bullying Latin American governments during negotiations on Covid-19 vaccines.
According to Argentine officials who signed a non-disclosure agreement with Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant allegedly asked for sovereign assets, such as embassy buildings and military bases, to be put up as collateral against the cost of any future legal case!

Pfizer’s demands led to a three-month delay in concluding some vaccine agreements. Indeed, no national agreement could be concluded with Argentina and Brazil.
The Argentine negotiators described Pfizer’s demands as “high-level bullying” and said that the government felt it was being “held to ransom" …
Here too, Pfizer allegedly asked for additional indemnification in the event of potential civil claims by citizens in Argentina and Brazil for adverse effects after their vaccination, demanding that sovereign assets be used as collateral to cover future legal costs.

While the confidentiality of pharmaceutical contracts is important for protecting companies’ trade secrets, everyone knows that it can also be used to conceal unethical or illegal practices. It is vital that citizens have access to relevant information on the decisions taken by their government regarding public health.

All over the world, tugs of war are taking place to shatter a level of opacity never before reached around the signing of such commitments. No doubt it matches the pharaonic sums of the contracts initialled by a very few elected officials chosen for their “competence”.

The conclusion is simple and rings out like a gunshot: the giants of the pharmaceutical industry unilaterally and with complete impunity create their own laws, which they impose by various means on Playmobil governments that carry them out in flagrant disregard for an increasingly vulnerable population.

What can be done so that the bullets do not claim too many victims?

Sandrine Heerebout

Photo source:
Image  Adobestock cropped
fountain pen with ink on white paper background
By Peter Hofstetter

[1] Première mondiale : les fabricants de vaccins dévoileront leurs contrats au Canada:
[2] Vaccins COVID-19: le Bloc demande d’examiner les contrats avec les pharmaceutiques | JDM
[3] Des millions de doses de vaccins contre la COVID-19 ont été gaspillées | Coronavirus | Radio-Canada.ca 
[4] Pfizer executives attempt to block secret COVID-19 vaccine contracts from MPs | Business | westernstandard.news
[5] Pfizer executives attempt to block secret COVID-19 vaccine contracts from MPs | Business | westernstandard.news
[6] Non-disclosure Agreements and Equitable Access to COVID-19 Vaccines – NYU JILP
[7] ‘Held to ransom’: Pfizer demands governments gamble with state assets to secure vaccine deal