$150 million made available for COVID-19 vaccine adverse event compensation scheme

Chubb and Marsh are collaborating with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Gavi – the Vaccine Alliance on an insurance programme that will offer eligible individuals in 92 lower-income countries and economies a fast, fair and transparent process to receive compensation for rare but serious adverse events associated with COVID-19 vaccines distributed through COVAX up to June 30, 2022. This COVAX No-fault Compensation Program is the first and only vaccine injury compensation mechanism operating on an international scale.

COVAX is the vaccine pillar of Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and WHO’s Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and was created to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee their fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

Through the new collaboration, in which Marsh was the broker and Chubb are the lead insurer, up to $150 million in insurance is provided to cover compensation payments to eligible individuals in the 92 lower-income countries and economies known as the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) eligible economies.

With COVAX’s goal to deliver up to two billion doses of safe, effective and quality-assured vaccines to all its participants in 2021, including up to 1.7 billion doses to the 92 AMC-eligible countries and economies, the insurance could not come at a better time.

“The unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has been matched by the largest ever rollout of new vaccines under the ACT Accelerator and its vaccines pillar, COVAX,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “The COVAX No-Fault Compensation Program helps to ensure that people in AMC-eligible countries and economies can benefit from the cutting-edge science that has delivered COVID-19 vaccines in record time.”

“As we implement COVAX, we have worked with all stakeholders towards establishing a comprehensive solution for indemnification that allows novel vaccines to be procured and addresses the financial obligations this may impose on lower-income economies that are part of COVAX,” said Dr Seth Berkley, Chief Executive Officer of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “The No-Fault Compensation Program is a robust, transparent and an independent mechanism that is going to be a key benefit for individuals being vaccinated and lower-income governments procuring vaccines through the Gavi COVAX AMC.”