BioNTech: Germans ask for compensation for Covid vaccine – 06/12/2023 – Health

BioNTech is facing a barrage of damages claims in Germany from two law firms that allege their clients suffered lasting health damage from the company’s coronavirus vaccine.

The Mainz-based pharmaceuticals maker will face its first German court hearing on Monday over claims in a case brought on behalf of a middle-aged medical worker.

She is seeking €150,000 in damages for symptoms such as cardiac arrhythmia and brain fog, which she says were caused after receiving the vaccine.

The challenge, in a regional court in Hamburg, is one of hundreds of claims for damages of up to €1 million that will be filed by the two law firms.

The most prominent of the companies, Düsseldorf-based Rogert & Ulbrich, is led by Tobias Ulbrich, an expert in transport and freight law who has criticized vaccine makers on social media. The other company is Cäsar-Preller, based in Wiesbaden.

The companies won damages for consumers from German automaker Volkswagen over its diesel emissions scandal.

Given that around three-quarters of the 224 million vaccine doses administered in Germany were produced by BioNTech in collaboration with Pfizer, the vast majority of claims are being brought against the Mainz-based company, which pioneered the use of messenger RNA. in vaccines.

The German cases represent the highest number of claims BioNTech has faced worldwide since rising to prominence during the pandemic.

Ulbrich is a controversial figure, who claimed that US billionaire Bill Gates wanted to use vaccination to reduce Germany’s population to 27 million people – a claim that a spokesman for his foundation said was “false”.

Ulbrich also claimed that blood tests on some of his clients showed that they suffered from “vaccine-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome” or “V-AIDS” — a syndrome that respected scientists say is not real.

The lawyer told the Financial Times that German media reports painting him as a conspiracy theorist showed he was “doing a good job” of scaring pharmaceutical companies.

Peer-reviewed studies have shown that side effects from Covid-19 vaccines are rare but do exist, including four types of neurological complications and an inflammation of the heart known as myocarditis.

But publicly listed BioNTech said it was confident the cases would be dismissed, pointing to the fact that it had decided not to set aside provisions to cover possible damages claims.

“Continuous monitoring of the safety profile of the vaccine and beyond 2.6 billion doses [da vacina contra a Covid-19] administered worldwide to date has not identified potential side effects beyond those already listed in the respective product information,” said BioNTech.

The company added that in the Hamburg case, the plaintiff and its lawyers had failed to demonstrate a “causal relationship between the adverse events and the vaccine” rather than a coincidence and described the lawsuit as “meritless”.

Ulbrich maintains that the burden of proof — and also possible damages — is lower in Germany than in other countries and is confident that, particularly at hearings in Munich and Düsseldorf, his clients’ cases are strong.

A verdict against BioNTech likely would have limited direct financial damage to the company because of an EU legal shield that largely protected vaccine makers from legal liability if they caused unforeseen side effects, leaving national governments on the hook.

Still, the firm had to expand the use of extra law firms to handle the increased caseload.

Both Rogert and Ulbrich and Cäsar-Preller reject accusations that they are exploiting the concerns of people who are unwell but have little chance of winning a successful court case for their own financial gain.

They say that the fees they can charge in most cases are limited to around 7,000 euros and are often paid by their clients’ insurance.

“It’s cost intensive,” said Cäsar-Preller owner Joachim Cäsar-Preller. “We have a great team. Half of the money goes to the courts.”

Additional reporting by Hannah Kuchler