Photo/Illutration COVID-19 vaccine candidates developed by AnGes Inc. with Osaka University and other researchers (Provided by Osaka University)

Japan will exempt pharmaceutical companies and other concerned parties from liability against compensating people whose health is damaged due to vaccines against COVID-19.

The special measure is aimed at securing vaccines as quickly as possible.

The central government will provide redress to people who suffer health problems resulting from vaccinations. It will submit related bills for the measure to the next Diet session that is expected to be convened in or after October.

“I think a bill to exempt (pharmaceutical companies) from liability will be necessary,” Hiroshi Moriyama, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Diet Affairs Committee, told reporters on Aug. 26, expressing optimism it would be submitted in the next Diet session.

A high-ranking official of the prime minister’s office said the same day that it is only natural for the government to submit a bill to discharge companies from liability.

According to government sources, the government is considering creating a new special measures law.

Pharmaceutical companies and research institutions around the globe are racing to develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus.

Vaccines are expected to be put into practical use more quickly than usual by simplifying some of the procedures for clinical trials and approval due to the extremely strong demand around the world.

Since there are many new types of vaccines, such as those using the genetic information of the virus, under development, they are more likely to cause unexpected health damage once put into practical use.

Therefore, pharmaceutical companies are asking the government to exempt them from liability for compensation that they are normally required to bear.

The health ministry is leading government efforts to flesh out details of a redress program since the government wants to avoid the development of vaccines being stalled because of concerns for a massive amount of compensation that pharmaceutical companies might have to pay.

It also wants to have vaccines put into practical use and secure the necessary volume to administer them to people in Japan as quickly as possible.

The government also introduced a special measures law when it decided to import vaccines from major European pharmaceutical companies following the outbreak of the new type of influenza in 2009.

The law was adopted to respond to requests from the companies to discharge them from liability to the same level as other countries do.

The government revised the preventive vaccination law in 2011 to include a provision for similar exemption of liability, but the provision expired in 2016.

At an Aug. 21 meeting of the government’s expert panel on COVID-19 measures headed by Shigeru Omi, some members said that the government needs to take a similar measure as it did in 2009.

(This article was written by Ayako Nakada and Shuichi Doi.)

Related News