Italy Threatens Lawsuits Against Pfizer Over Late Delivery

Italy is threatening lawsuits against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer over delayed deliveries of the corona vaccine that the American company Pfizer makes with the German BioNTech.

The unique ‘corona commissioner’ in Italy, Domenico Arcuri, does not accept the delay and wants to start civil and criminal cases against the vaccine manufacturer.

Arcuri said that “protecting the health of the Italians is non-negotiable.” The vaccine manufacturers have announced that there are delays in the delivery of vaccines this week.

According to the Italian ‘corona commissioner’, only 71 percent of the promised doses have been delivered this week. According to him, the vaccination campaign cannot be delayed. So far 1.2 of the 60 million Italians have been vaccinated.

Arcuri did not explain exactly what charges he has in mind.

Large pharmaceutical companies are familiar with civil and criminal charges. For example, Pfizer was given one of the largest indemnity obligations ever imposed by a US judge for criminal and civil misconduct.

In 2009, that amounted to a total of $ 2.3 billion for illegal marketing of pharmaceuticals, bribing doctors to prescribe certain drugs and defrauding US government health institutions with false claims about products.