Pfizer sues Romania over 28 mln refused COVID-19 vaccines
Pharma group Pfizer sued Romania for allegedly violating the contract for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines concluded during the pandemic. At stake, there are some 28 million doses not ordered by Romania, although included in the contract signed in May 2021 by the European Commission with Pfizer on behalf of the EU member states.
The value of the order, which Pfizer supposedly seeks to recover from Romania, would be around EUR 550 million.
Pfizer confirmed it had initiated formal proceedings against Romania to force it to honor its commitments for the government's orders for COVID vaccines as part of the EU supply contract signed in May 2021, according to the company's senior director of Global Media Relations, Andrew Widger, News.ro reported.
A notification of the opening of this litigation was received by mail in the last days of December, and the first term is tabled for early February, the Romanian government's spokesperson, Mihai Constantin, confirmed.
Health minister Alexandru Rafila said there is no legal ground for penalties to be claimed in case the vaccines are refused since Romania refused to sign an amendment to the initial contract in this regard.
"Moderna delivered at the end of last year 1.3 million doses of the vaccine on account of an order paid for in 2021. They did it, the vaccine had already been paid for more than 2 years, and those from Pfizer [for which we didn't pay], we tried to talk with them, we had countless online meetings both with them and with representatives of the European Commission, we didn't get to an agreement, and I received by mail the notification of this summons before the court in Brussels", said minister Rafila, according to News.ro.
He explained that in this dispute with Pfizer, Romania will try to coordinate with Poland.
Pfizer, which co-developed the COVID-19 vaccine with German company BioNTech, took Poland to court in a similar case after a year of negotiations that failed to reach an agreement.
iulian@romania-insider.com
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