Poland and Hungary Blame EU as Pfizer Sues over Vaccine Deliveries

Hungary is another EU country along with Poland that is being sued in civil court by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer over its refusal to take delivery of and pay for COVID-19 vaccines that it had agreed to, the Hungarian government confirmed on Wednesday.

“Regarding the ongoing slander against Hungary by @pfizer: In the @EU_Commission, Pfizer purchases were shrouded in suspicions of corruption!” Zoltan Kovacs, the government spokesperson wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “It is obvious that these vaccines were ordered and forced on Member States in unnecessarily large quantities.”

Both countries have taken aim at the European Commission’s giant vaccine-procurement efforts during the pandemic, which observers say could be part of an increasing number of legal proceedings related to the program, which many accuse of being non-transparent and tainted by corruption.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed in October 2022 that it has an ongoing investigation into the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines in the EU, while Romania’s Anticorruption Directorate, or DNA, said on Wednesday that it had placed former prime minister Florin Citu under criminal investigation for abuse of office over the purchase of vaccines during the pandemic.

On Tuesday, a first hearing in the court case against Poland by Pfizer, together with BioNTech, took place at the Francophone Court of First Instance in Brussels. According to Politico Europe, the hearing was merely procedural, with the two parties only agreeing to postpone their court date to January 30, 2024.

Pfizer announced in November it was suing Poland for not accepting and not paying for 60 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, which were supposed to reach the country last year. The cost of those wasted shots is estimated at 1.2 billion euros.

The Polish purchase was part of the massive deal the European Commission struck with Pfizer in 2021 for the delivery of 1.1 billion doses to European countries. With time, however, it turned out that some countries had overestimated their vaccine needs.

In the case of Poland, the then-health minister, Adam Niedzielski, announced in April 2022 that the country had been forced to halt the purchase of 60 million doses because of financial pressures stemming from the war in Ukraine. In his public explanations, Niedzielski referred to the burden that Poland had taken on in helping Ukrainian refugees flee Russia’s invasion.

In total, nine countries from Central and Eastern Europe complained at the time about oversupplies, leading the European Commission to renegotiate the initial terms of the deal with Pfizer, though Poland did not sign up to the revised deal, the conditions of which Niedzielski described as “outrageous”.

Pfizer with its partner BionTech also launched legal proceedings against Hungary in January, Politico reported on Tuesday, citing court documents.

Like Poland, the Hungarian government blamed the war in Ukraine for not paying for the COVID-19 vaccines it had ordered when it informed the US company in November 2022. In Hungary’s case, it involves 3 million doses of vaccines worth 60 million euros, Politico wrote.

Pfizer said it was in discussions with the Hungarian government. Polish Health Minister Katarzyna Sojka also said in November that she hoped it would still be possible to reach an agreement with the pharmaceutical company.

The Hungarian government has long been critical of the EU’s joint vaccine purchase program, and even pulled out of it in May 2021, citing enough reserves and the imminent construction of its own vaccine factory, which in the end wasn’t built.

Yet just six months after pulling out of the joint vaccine-procurement program, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban changed his mind and signed up for it again in November 2021. Orban’s press secretary said at the time that Hungary had ordered 9.5 million doses worth 195 million euros.

The legal wrangling is already having an effect in Poland. As a consequence of the conflict with Pfizer, Poland is currently not receiving upgraded vaccines from Pfizer, with Poles having to rely exclusively on vaccines from Canada’s Novavax. In a country of 38 million people, the government announced it had ordered 1 million doses of the adapted vaccine from Novavax that targets the XBB.1.5 variant circulating globally, which is available only for people aged 12 and older.

The online registration system, which opened this week, can be confusing for patients however, as they are being offered a mix of Novavax targeting the newer variants and older Pfizer and Moderna shots that Poland still has in stock and needs to use up.

Another fallout from the conflict is that the Pfizer-produced medication used to treat COVID-19, Paxlovid, is not being currently funded by the Polish government, with its pharmacy cost standing at 5,200 zloty (1,200 euros).