US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has escalated its feud with Poland over excess Covid-19 vaccine doses that were ordered under a huge contract with the European Union. The company is suing the country over what it claims is an unfulfilled contract for Covid-19 vaccines.
Warsaw was locked into buying tens of millions of doses under a controversial contract the European Commission had signed with Pfizer in 2021 on behalf of EU nations. Pfizer is demanding 6 billion zloty ($1.5 billion) in compensation for 60 million doses that Poland’s government declined, after it stopped taking delivery of the jabs in April 2022.
The entire bloc wound up ordering 1.1 billion doses under the contract, saddling EU states with a vaccine glut as the Covid-19 pandemic waned. The EU prosecutor’s office has already announced an investigation into the procurement process amid allegations of corruption and secret backroom deals while Polish Health Minister Katarzyna Sojka has warned other EU states could be next to face prosecution. …
The final paragraph of this report reveals how countries like Poland lose on the swings AND the roundabouts of EU policy —
Millions of Poles refused to receive Covid-19 vaccines, and Warsaw halted deliveries of the jabs as an influx of Ukrainian refugees in early 2022 strained the government’s finances.
In 2021 the Commission signed a game-changing contract with Pfizer for up to 1.8 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine; of those, 1.1 billon doses would eventually be ordered. This joint purchase agreement, negotiated by the Commission on behalf of EU countries, dwarfed the bloc’s previous vaccine purchases, and led other vaccine makers to complain they were being squeezed out of the market.
The size of the contract has been a millstone around the Commission’s neck ever since, and not merely because of transparency concerns around von der Leyen’s refusal to discuss any personal role she may have played in the negotiations. It also tied countries into buying doses that, it turns out, they wouldn’t need.
Nine other Eastern/Central European countries have been similarly affected, forced to spend money on vaccines that weren’t needed, although they didn’t take Poland’s course of action.
We agree with the Politico piece that the timing of this claim by Pfizer is curious as Poland has just had elections which saw the right lose its outright majority, favouring globalist/centristDonald Tusk as a new coalition leader. Tusk is likely to be the one to handle this problem, faced with a Pfizer bill of around 1.2 billion euros.
A reminder that Ursula von der Leyen’s text messages to Bourla still have not been made public, nor have the conditions under which the vaccine contracts were negotiated.
The first hearing in this Polish case is set for December 6.
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Pfizer Sues Poland, Demanding Money for Undelivered and Unwanted COVID Vaccines
“At the end of last week, we used the force majeure clause and informed both the European Commission and the main vaccine producer that we are refusing to take these vaccines at the moment and we are also refusing to pay,” health minister Adam Niedzielski told private broadcaster TVN24.
“Indeed, the consequence of this will be a legal conflict, which is already taking place,” he said.
Poland cannot directly terminate the contract for the supply of vaccines as the parties to the contracts are the European Commission and manufacturers, he said.
The value of the contract for vaccine supplies to Poland up to the end of 2023 with one producer alone was worth over 6 billion zlotys ($1.4 billion), with over 2 billion zlotys of that for supply in 2022.
Pfizer said its agreement over the supply of its COVID-19 vaccine to European Union member states was with the EU Commission.
“Our discussions with Governments and the details of vaccine deliveries are confidential,” it added.
Somehow, Poland is a party to the EU/Pfizer contract that was kept confidential from the country but still obligates it to pay.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and EU’s Ursula von der Leyen negotiated the contract in secret. (see picture below)
Anyway, now in 2023, Pfizer filed a suit, suing Poland for the monies due under the contract that was confidential and unavailable for Poland to even look at.
How a party can be obligated to pay under a contract that could not ever be assented to due to secrecy is a mystery to me, but I guess the legal minds in Europe see it differently.
Pfizer is suing in Brussels because Polish courts cannot see the contract and are unlikely to be very receptive to enforcing a contract that the court cannot review.
According to Polish newspaper Gazeta Prawa, Pfizer brought the civil case before a Brussels courtbecause the doses were purchased through EU joint procurement contracts, drawn up under Belgian law.
Can Poland, perhaps, bring forth some novel defenses?
Infertility in Poland
Perhaps Poland can ask Pfizer to comment on the dramatic fall in fertility that Poland is experiencing.
Polish COVID Vaccine Victims
Poland may ask its local courts to make Pfizer compensate Polish COVID vaccine victims (fortunately, there are fewer of them compared to the vax-crazy countries).
Pictures of some of the Polish victims of Covid vaccines, beautiful healthy humans who never needed the “vaccine” and yet died from it, are displayed by their bereaved relatives:
Can Pfizer explain, for example, why Sweden’s deaths continued to go up as the country was vaccinated, while Poland’s deaths went down after Poland refused COVID vaccines?
I am not an international lawyer, and I do not specialize in the enforceability of secret contracts that cannot even be seen by the parties which they obligate.
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