Poland has slammed a Covid-19 vaccines agreement negotiated by the European Commission with BioNTech/Pfizer as “scandalous” and has rejected the deal.
Adam Niedzielski, Poland’s health minister, decried the terms of the agreement as unsatisfactory and said his country would not be a part of it. “We still believe that the conditions negotiated on behalf of the EU Member States are inadequate and unsatisfactory, and we will not be a party to the agreement,” he stated.
In 2021 the EC bought 1.8 billion vaccine doses from BioNTech/Pfizer, made up of a guaranteed 900 million doses with an option for 900 million more. Last Friday, the European Commission announced that it had reached agreement with BioNTech/Pfizer on a reduction in deliveries of Covid-19 shots of about a third and an extension of the period over which they are to be made.
The EC-Pfizer deal includes a new provision for Member States to still pay half price, about €10, for each dose cancelled and that deliveries should total 70 million shots a year until 2026. However, the demand for vaccines has been declining as governments continue to make use of existing supplies. Additionally, there has been a fall in the number of people opting for annual booster shots.
Niedzielski said: “In the Pfizer offer, which the European Commission accepted, failing to represent the interests of the member states, the company is demanding payment for the vaccine deliveries which are to be reduced.
“In other words,” he continued, “it is demanding payment for vaccines which will not be delivered … This is tantamount to a scandal rather than just sharp business negotiations practice. We will remain in dispute with Pfizer.”
Niedzielski pointed out that since April last year Poland has been invoking a force majeure clause of the original contract in refusing to accept deliveries as a result of changing epidemiological conditions.
He complained that the contracts signed by the EC were unclear and poorly structured. “The contracts are so badly defined that in principle they force countries to accept millions of doses of the vaccine which are no longer required. They do not even provide for the possibility of transferring these doses to poorer countries, though admittedly they are not reporting such needs.”
He added that Poland was working together with other Eastern European states that share its standpoint. “We will continue to insist that these conditions are not acceptable. Our coalition with countries that share our view on this matter such as Hungary and Romania is still in place and may soon be joined by Lithuania,” he said.
The minister also clarified that the dispute concerns just one supplier of the vaccines, pointing out that agreement has been reached with other producers that had led to “a huge reduction” in deliveries.
