Taxpayers Indemnify Pharma Giant Against Swine Flu Vaccine Legal Action

TAXPAYERS have indemnified pharmaceutical giant CSL against any lawsuits flowing from the swine flu vaccine. The Therapeutic Goods Administration yesterday confirmed CSL was indemnified as health authorities continue to probe a discolouration affecting the national stockpile. "There are indemnity arrangements for the pandemic flu vaccine, as with all pandemic flu vaccine arrangements around the world, and these are commercial in confidence," a TGA spokeswoman said yesterday. "They were agreed to by the previous government when the contract for the purchase was set in train." The Rudd government paid CSL $9 million to conduct clinical trials of the Panvax vaccine last year, before awarding the company a $131m contract to supply the nation's stockpile of 21 million doses. The indemnity is listed in this year's federal budget papers as an "unquantifiable contingent liability". The TGA spokeswoman yesterday said the indemnity did not apply to CSL's controversial seasonal flu shot, which was suspended for use in healthy children younger than five this year after it triggered febrile fits at nine times the usual rate. The Australian revealed last week that TGA audits found deficiencies in 136 of the 139 Australian pharmaceutical laboratories it checked in the past year. Australian National University professor of infectious diseases and microbiology Peter Collignon yesterday called on the federal government to ensure future pharmaceutical contracts were more transparent. "We really need to know what the profit margin is on this," Professor Collignon said.

Natasha Bita, The Australian National Affairs

Related Links:
* 98% Of Pharma Drugs Labs Have Problems
Natasha Bita, The Australian
* Flu Vaccine Killer Comes From Multiple Vaccine Batches
ABC News
* Australia Launches Flu Vaccine Inquiry As Children Convulse And Die
Cortlan Bennett, Sydney Morning Herald