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Countries May Have No Legal Recourse in Enforcing Vaccine Contracts with International Pharmaceutical Companies

The swine flu pandemic has already had a forceful impact across the globe, but with fall flu season just months away and pharmaceutical companies racing to fill vaccine orders, it may also prove to be a major game-changer in international contract law. 

Many countries have contracted to receive enough of the vaccine to satisfy their nation's needs; however, the private contracts between the countries and international pharmaceutical companies are not subject to binding international law.  And in the light of the pandemic nature of swine flu, aka an "extraordinary circumstance", legal experts are cautioning countries scheduled to have vaccines imported, to have a back-up plan.  Many of the vaccine order contracts contain clauses that allow breaking of the contracts under extraordinary circumstances opening the door for governments of countries with pharmaceutical plants to lock down vaccine stores to serve their country's needs first before exporting the vaccine abroad.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Merck's appeal of a 3rd Circuit decision allowing a shareholder suit over the painkiller Vioxx, in what will likely become an important case for shareholder suits of all kinds.

The question presented is when the two year statute of limitations period for shareholder suits commences.  More precisely, exactly how much notice of wrongdoing is required before the statute begins to run?