Pfizer has emerged victorious in a legal brawl with Poland and Romania over contested COVID vaccine orders, with a Belgian court ordering the two countries to pay €1.9 billion ($2.2 billion).
The Court of First Instance in Brussels on Wednesday ruled that Poland must shell out some €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) to the New York-based drugmaker, while Romania is responsible for about €600 million ($691 million), according to reports.
Poland is not taking the order sitting down and intends to use “all legal remedies available to it to reverse this ruling and defend its interests,” the country’s Ministry of Health announced in an April 1 release.
The country has the right to appeal the judgment in a new procedure that would allow existing and new “legal and factual arguments,” the health ministry said, noting that further actions will be taken after an in-depth analysis of the judgment and discussions with legal representatives.
Pfizer, meanwhile, says that the court’s decision “reflects the importance of the contractual obligations that underpinned a successful European pandemic response, which was built on the principle of solidarity between Member States,” a spokesperson told Fierce Pharma in an emailed statement.