Poland, Romania ordered to pay Pfizer for unpaid Covid vaccines

TDT | Manama

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A Brussels court on Wednesday ordered Poland and Romania to pay Pfizer/BioNTech for unpaid anti-Covid vaccines, after the two countries stopped payments when the pandemic subsided. Poland was told to pay 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) and Romania 600 million euros, according to a communique from the court. US-based Pfizer sued the two countries in late 2023, saying they had not honoured their contracts in full. The case was heard in Belgium because the Brussels-based European Commission negotiated Covid vaccine contracts with major pharmaceutical companies on behalf of all the bloc's members, one of the biggest being with Pfizer in May 2021. As early as April 2022, the Polish government at the time said it would not accept and pay for doses it considered unnecessary, given the waning of the pandemic and the state of existing stocks. Pfizer welcomed Wednesday's ruling, which it said reflected "the importance of the contractual obligations that have enabled Europe to respond successfully to this pandemic". At a news conference late Wednesday, Romanian Health Minister Alexandru Rogobete said he regretted what he called "poor decisions taken at the time by a previous government". "If these doses had not been contracted in May 2021, Romania would not be facing this bill today".