Sovereign Interests and Medical Obligations: Navigating Vaccine Supply Chain Disputes through ADR

The right to health is a fundamental right of every human being irrespective of their origin. Although the growing business of pharmaceutical giants in recent years is attributed to the capitalist mindset of developing countries, it also provides a certain number of guarantees that the rapid production of medicines will also tackle large-scale medical emergencies as quickly as possible. The world witnessed the deadly Covid-19 pandemic which has left a mark in the history of mankind as one of the worst medical catastrophes. The pandemic saw active involvement of pharmaceutical companies from across the world to invent, produce and supply vaccines to combat the deadly virus. This complex process saw the involvement of equally complex contractual obligations being formed and subsequent disputes being raised over vaccine supply around the world. The paper examines the formation of supply chain contracts between pharmaceutical companies and governments and analyzes how the pandemic was considered as Force Majeure in these contractual transactions. While the world was witnessing large scale deaths of people due to the pandemic, the legal spheres and governments around the world witnessed dispute over the supply of vaccines from pharmaceutical companies to countries in need. This was attributed to the “non-performance” of contracts since the supply of vaccines was insufficient compared to the number of citizens. The need of the hour being that of saving lives of people, many of these contractual disputes were settled out of court, thus, making Alternative Dispute Resolution a paramount mitigation tool to resolve the disputes without prolonging them through rigid court proceedings. The paper deep dives into the case of European Commission–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine dispute that involved out of court negotiation. The paper will also draw similarities between this case and India’s “Vaccine Maitri” policy which utilized “Act of State” defence to facilitate negotiation as an informal ADR mechanism to halt vaccine supply to foreign countries to make them available to Indian citizens. Lastly, the paper also analyses case laws from the past decades involving contractual disputes over pharmaceutical supplies during medical emergencies around the world to establish how Alternative Dispute Resolution was used directly or indirectly as a legal tool to resolve supply chain contract dispute for providing rapid medical care to people. Furthermore, the paper emphasizes the need for autonomous legislation both at national and international level addressing the issue of global medical catastrophes, to provide statutory time limitations and provisions for expedited dispute involving supply chain contracts between pharmaceutical companies and governments.