Chubb and Marsh have announced a collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to secure insurance coverage for a program that will offer eligible people in 92 low-income countries and economies a fast, fair and transparent process to receive compensation for rare but serious adverse effects associated with COVID-19 vaccines distributed through COVAX.
The COVAX No-Fault Compensation Program is the first and only vaccine injury compensation program operating on an international scale, Marsh and Chubb said.
COVAX was created to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee their fair and equitable distribution to every country in the world.
Through the collaboration between Chubb and Marsh, up to US$150 million in insurance is provided for the COVAX No-Fault Compensation Program to cover compensation to eligible people in the 92 lower-income countries and economies, known collectively as the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) eligible economies.
Insurance broker Marsh led the global placement of the coverage. Chubb is the lead insurer, supported by another 10 insurers located in the US, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and Bermuda.
The delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 will be the largest and fastest global distribution of novel vaccines in history. COVAX aims to deliver up to two billion doses by the end of the year, including up to 1.7 billion doses to the 92 AMC-eligible countries and economies.
“Chubb is pleased to extend our collaboration with the World Health Organization and its partners to support the critically important COVAX No-Fault Compensation Program,” said Evan G. Greenberg, chairman and CEO of Chubb. “The magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic demands that everyone – from governments and public health authorities to the private sector – bring their skills, capabilities and resources to do their part to end this crisis. We are gratified to work alongside Marsh to support an essential program that will promote people in all countries, regardless of income levels, having equal access to these life-saving vaccines.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic is first and foremost a human tragedy, which has resulted in trillions of dollars of economic losses and deeply affected the prospects of some of the world’s poorest countries and their people,” said John Doyle, president and CEO of Marsh. “Throughout the pandemic, Marsh colleagues the world over have worked hard to help clients and communities tackle the rapid changes to their risk landscapes. The delivery of COVAX-distributed vaccines will now enable some of the most vulnerable societies to rebuild and recover more quickly. By working together, the public sector and insurance industry have the ability to develop solutions that can accelerate economic recovery from COVID-19.”
“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, director-general of WHO. “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 addressed the financial obligations this may impose on lower-income economies that are part of COVAX,” said Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi. “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.”
