Pfizer sues Poland over vaccine deal
Pfizer is suing the Republic of Poland for as much as €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) over the country’s refusal to purchase 60 million more COVID-19 vaccines.
Poland was required to purchase millions of vaccines from Pfizer after the European Commission (EC) signed a contract with the pharmaceutical giant binding all European Union countries to buy a total of 1.8 billion shots. The contract, whose details remain largely secret, was negotiated over text message between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
Later the deal was restructured for a reduced 1.1 billion doses.
But after vaccinating roughly 60% of its population, in April 2022 Warsaw halted delivery on 60 million outstanding shots. According to Politico, then-Health Minister Adam Niedzielski invoked the force majeure clause of the contract, saying that an influx of Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion placed undue financial strain on the country. He also argued that vaccinations, which had begun to dwindle, were less necessary at that point.
Following Poland’s decision, nine other countries in Central and Eastern Europe also began complaining that they were locked into buying vaccines they did not need and demanded the EC re-negotiate the deal with Pfizer.
EC officials agreed and in May restructured a new deal with Pfizer which reduced the number of outstanding vaccines and spread out deliveries through 2026. But Poland did not sign up to the new deal, which would still require it to purchase more vaccines, though less than the 60 million currently outstanding.
The first hearing is scheduled for December 6th.
But regardless of the lawsuit’s outcome, the action may serve as a wake-up call for countries now stuck with a bill to which they did not agree. Or, even if they did, some countries may take more care in the future to better research vaccines they purchase and the illnesses those injections claim to prevent.
Furthermore, if Poland emerges victorious in the case, it could have significant implications — not only for other countries who also wish to be released from the vaccine deal but for how future deals are struck between the globalist European Commission and pharmaceutical companies.
Germany is also facing mounting losses from unused vaccines, prompting renewed calls from German authorities to get vaccinated.
“Despite the pandemic and awareness campaigns, the importance of the Covid booster is apparently greatly underestimated,” German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told Der Spiegel last month. “So far, unfortunately, only a fraction of those for whom it is recommended have had a booster vaccination.”
Der Spiegel notes that Lauterbach “urgently needs to boost vaccinations” to prevent billions of euros in losses. Earlier this year the government threw out 29 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine after discarding 54 million doses at the end of 2022 resulting in a €1.6 billion ($1.7 billion) loss.
As recently as June the German government was sitting on 120 million unused doses and has purchased approximately 14.1 million more for the XBB 1.5 variant. But only 2.5 million people have received at least one booster, leaving the German government facing a total loss of more than €4 billion ($4.3 billion) according to rough estimates.
EC President von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Bourla have been unflinchingly mum about the deal they privately negotiated on their phones. Under pressure from some of the bloc’s countries, EC officials said earlier this year they would question von der Leyen but only behind closed doors and out of the public eye. Since then no further information has been provided to the public.
Bereft of von der Leyen’s cooperation, the EU’s COVID-19 committee (COVI) twice invited Bourla last year to appear before Parliament to provide clarification on the contract but Bourla refused. Instead, he sent Pfizer’s President of International Developed Markets Janine Small, who assured the parliamentarians in October 2022 that the vaccine contracts were freely available to them, omitting the fact that they were heavily redacted.
“I think Albert Bourla deliberately did not come, because he did not want to face the controversies,” French MEP and COVI member Véronique Trillet-Lenoir told Euractiv.
“As Committee Chair, I deeply regret Dr. Bourla’s refusal. The EU has spent a lot of public resources on vaccine production & purchase. The [European Parliament] has a right to full transparency on the details of this spending and the preliminary negotiations that led to it,” tweeted COVI Chair Kathleen Van Brempt in December 2022.
In response to Bourla’s refusal, the COVI voted to ban Pfizer representatives from Parliament, which would block the company’s lobbyists — and Bourla himself — from access to lawmakers. But the proposal was shot down by the Conference of Presidents (CoP), a parliamentary body which includes the heads of political groups and Parliament’s president.
