Chennai volunteer for Serum wanted probe, but company intimidating

Chennai: The 40-year old volunteer, who works as a business consultant had wanted to investigate the cause of him contracting severe neurological health complications he had suffered after being vaccinated with Covidshield shots under development at Serum Institute of India, but the company was intimidating him with a threat of over Rs 100 crore damage suit, said his advocates.

"We are yet to get any reply for the legal notice sent to various parties, including Serum Institute. We have seen news reports about Serum Institute threatening our client with a suit for over Rs 100 crore," N.G.R. Prasad, Advocate, Row & Reddy, told IANS.

"Our client had restricted his claim only for Rs 5 crore and wanted investigation to start as to the cause of him suffering severe neurological problems and stop the vaccine from affecting other people," Prasad added.

On the other hand, Serum Institute without getting into the root cause is intimidating its volunteer with a threat of over Rs 100 crore damage suit. "The client is ready to fight it out legally if needed," R.Rajaram, another Advocate for the volunteer told IANS.

The two advocates said this will be a medico-legal case and the evidence of medical professionals will be obtained in support of their client.

"The volunteer was a healthy male prior to being vaccinated. He was tested only for coronavirus infection before being vaccinated with Covidshield. He was found negative for coronavirus infection," Prasad said. "No other medical tests were done to ascertain his health condition," Prasad added. He said in case of any adverse reaction, investigation into the issue should have been carried out immediately-whether it is related to the vaccine or not. "But it was not done despite the severe neurological health complications our client had developed," Prasad said.

Reacting to the volunteer's legal notice, Serum Institute in a media statement on November 29 said: "The claim is malicious because the volunteer was specifically informed by the medical team that the complications he suffered were independent of the vaccine trial he underwent. In-spite of specifically being made aware of the same, he still chose to go public and malign the reputation of the company."

The company is silent on what basis the medical team told the volunteer that his neurological problems are independent of the vaccine trial that he underwent.

According to Prasad, no other medical tests were done on his client to ascertain his pre-vaccination health status and other pre-existing ailments.

"The allegations in the notice are malicious and misconceived. While the Serum Institute of India is sympathetic with the volunteer's medical condition, there is absolutely no correlation with the vaccine trial and the medical condition of the volunteer. The volunteer is falsely laying the blame for his medical problems on the Covid vaccine trial," Serum Institute had said.

"It is evident that the intention behind the spreading of such malicious information is an oblique pecuniary motive. The Serum Institute of India, will seek damages in excess of 100 crore for the same and will defend such malicious claims," the company issued a counter threat.