Health Minister Alexandru Rafila believes Pfizer will “cope well” with the lawsuit filed in Romania and says it seems unnatural “for a pharmaceutical company to undermine trust in vaccination.”

“Pfizer sued Romania and there are certain procedures at the government level where either the government or the Ministry of Finance hires a law firm. The problem is that the firm that will effectively represent Romania in court must know Belgian law, and the court process is conducted in French. (…) I contacted the Polish, we had a discussion about this process and an attempt to coordinate the positions of the two countries. There is also a third country – Hungary. We will see if we can have joint or separate representation, but either way the legal teams have to communicate with each other. I suspect that Pfizer will also succeed in this process, because at least to me as a public health professional, it seems completely unnatural for a pharmaceutical company to undermine the credibility of vaccination in general, I do not mean anti-Covid vaccination.” – said Minister Alexandru Rafila on Sunday evening on Antena 3, reports Agerpres.

According to him, the Moderna company, on the initiative of its representatives, stopped “any commercial dispute” and no longer had any claims regarding the continuation of the contract or legal proceedings.

“With those at Moderna, even at their initiative… With Johnson and to some extent with those at AstraZeneca, we still have to see what the situation will be, but Moderna has been very honest. They sent us the doses for the advance that Mr. Voiculescu paid in 2021. They didn’t send the doses, they sent now in December – 1.2 million doses. It is a new formulation of the vaccine and for those who wish, we have distributed it to family doctors, if there are those who wish to vaccinate, they can do so with the newest formulation available. They have settled almost all types of commercial disputes. Regarding the remaining 70% of the ordered doses, he no longer had any claims regarding the extension of the contract or legal action,” Alexandru Rafila said.

Last December, Pfizer informed the authorities in Bucharest of the opening of legal proceedings for the recovery of certain sums of money, given the incompleteness of the purchase by the Romanian side of 28 million doses of the vaccine against Covid. , after which the first semester will take place in February.

Read also:

• Pfizer Sues Romania Over Anti-Covid Vaccines / 28 Million Doses, Costing €550 Million From Initial Contract, Romania Backs Out / What Health Minister Says
• Vlad Voiculescu on the vaccine procurement dossier: “If it were public, the truth would be 100% obvious”
• INTERVIEW Who decided how many vaccines to purchase during the pandemic and who signed the contract? Vlad Voiculescu: The contract was signed by a representative authorized by CNCAV – a researcher working at MAPN