The Avian Influenza Trilogy
The contract
We are writing this post with the help of some sharp-eyed readers and a contract specialist we know (no, it’s not Joe Biden).
The contract for the purchase by the UKHSA of H5 whatnot is here.
We now look at what the contract can tell us about the whatnot (it will soon become clear why we call it that) they bought with our money to protect us from a virtually non-existent threat.
The 90-page document is an adaptation of a standard format. There are, however, aspects that may be of interest.
The purchaser is “The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care acting as part of the Crown through the UK Health Security Agency”. So it’s not granny pop out of bed; it’s the UKHSA.
This makes the UKHSA’s apparent ignorance of the meaning of infectiousness or the properties of the vaccine they bought very puzzling.
There is no date, which is a problem as we shall see.
Then a brief description of what they bought: “Zoonotic influenza vaccine (H5N8) (surface antigen, inactivated, adjuvanted), containing virus surface antigens (haemagglutinin and neuraminidase) of strain: A/Astrakhan/3212/2020 (H5N8)-like strain (CBER- RG8A) (clade 2.3.4.4b) 7.5 micrograms HA per 0.5 ml dose in pre-filled syringe (type I glass) with plunger- stopper (bromo-butyl rubber)”.
So it’s a ready-packed vaccine against influenza H5N8. So why refer to H5 in the tender?
It’s not a platform; it’s a specific vaccine. We are no manufacturers, but we doubt that if suddenly the modellers popped up with a deadly threat from H5N1, you could uncork the syringes and do a bit of magic with the content.
It’s a one-pony trick. Weird.
The date is important.
According to the contracts files we identified, the Seqirus contract runs for 12 months from 1 November 2024 (which matches the tender giving a termination at the end of November 2025). As the shelf life is 18 months at the most, if chickens are still dying, at the latest in mid-2026, we are in for another fleecing, sorry, procurement.
The whatnot has to have valid market authorisation by MHRA and the EMA (the EU comes into play because of the Northern Ireland Protocol).
The contract price the Minister refused to divulge to Parliament is to be found in the Commercial Schedule as mentioned on pdf page 23 of the contract. Except that, we can find no mention of the price. Again, it’s all secret.
The supplier is liable for damages only in the case of negligence or the defective product (very loose definitions and legally difficult to prove). But this is all standard stuff, which is one of the reasons why you hardly ever see legal proceedings.
Schedule 3 has an interesting part:
1. Confidentiality
See 1.2 Nothing in this Clause 1 shall prevent the Recipient from disclosing Confidential
Information where it is required to do so by judicial, administrative, governmental or
regulatory process in connection with any action, suit, proceedings or claim or otherwise by applicable Law, including the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”), Codes of Practice on Access to Government Information, on the Discharge of Public Authorities’ Functions or on the Management of Records (“Codes of Practice”), or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“Environmental Regulations”).
2.3 The Parties acknowledge that, except for any information which is exempt from disclosure in accordance with the provisions of the FOIA, Codes of Practice, and Environmental Regulations, the content of this Contract is not Confidential Information
So does the UKHSA have an obligation to reveal all and stop stonewalling us, or not?
Last, we had a shot at estimating the price of 5.5 million doses of whatnots.
According to one source, the US purchased 3 million doses of whatnot at $34 million. So, using the same value, we came up with a total of $62.3 Million or roughly £50 million for the 5.5 million doses ordered in the UK. We have to add the costs of stocking, management, warehousing and delivery. The UKHSA has tendered for this, and according to their list, the price is £551,279,000 over 5 years. However, this is probably not specific to the whatnot and includes other biologics.
The total is, well, a lot of dosh for something that will be thrown in the bin at the latest in 2026.
This post was written by two old geezers who think Parliament should urgently oversee this and similar contracts using experts not tied to UKHSA or any branch of government or pharma. To be clear: The two old geezers recuse themselves.
Consider yourselves recused. What an absolute stinkfest! Thank you for daring to ask where our money has gone and keep asking and asking….and asking. I will ask my MP. I respectfully suggest we all do and start making waves.
Big pharma are laughing all the way to the bank aren’t they? And laughing up their sleeves at the stupidity of the people handing out the cash.