U S courts continue to apply narrower view of PREP Act immunity | Hogan Lovells jdsupra.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jdsupra.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The application of the PREP Act is being more actively litigated now than ever before because of the pandemic. An unresolved question is whether the PREP Act provides protection to companies and their executives who are sued in shareholder class action suits.
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently added government contractors to the list of entities eligible for immunity from liability under the Secretary’s March 17, 2020, Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (“PREP Act”) declaration. The PREP Act protects individuals and companies from liability for death or other tort-like harm in connection with the pandemic response, except for cases involving “willful misconduct.” Under the recent amendment, government contractors acting with authorization from an executive department or agency or who
could be so authorized are protected from liability when they prescribe, administer, deliver, distribute, or dispense Covered Countermeasures, as long as they meet the other requirements of the Act. Covered Countermeasures could include the COVID-19 vaccine or personal protective equipment like respirators. We wrote previously about the evolvi
Authorized Government Contractors Now Covered Persons Under the PREP Act | Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP jdsupra.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jdsupra.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Back in March, we wrote about how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had extended the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act to grant immunity to “Covered Persons” providing “Covered Countermeasures” against COVID-19. The Office of the General Counsel for HHS issued an omnibus advisory opinion on April 14 that addressed common questions and concerns about the scope of PREP Act immunity, as discussed in our April update. Last month, we described how courts across the country have interpreted the PREP Act in the context of the ongoing pandemic.