Belgian court orders Poland, Romania to buy $2.2 billion of Pfizer COVID vaccines

BRUSSELS, April 1 (Reuters) - A Belgian court on Wednesday ordered Poland and Romania to take delivery of 1.9 billion euros ($2.2 billion) worth of COVID-19 vaccines made by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer PFE.N.

Pfizer sued Poland and Romania in late 2023 in a Belgian court to force the two countries to comply with a contract signed between the European Commission and Pfizer for the delivery of a set number of vaccine doses over several years, the court said.

Poland refused in April 2022 to comply with the contract, citing the evolution of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and a possible abuse of dominant position by Pfizer. Romania later took the same step.

The Brussels court rejected those arguments and ordered Poland and Romania to take delivery of the vaccine doses and pay Pfizer.

Poland was ordered to take delivery of Pfizer vaccine doses worth 1.3 billion euros, while Romania was ordered to take 600 million euros' worth.

Poland's health ministry had no immediate comment on the ruling. The Romanian government said it did not have an official announcement on the ruling and so could not comment.

($1 = 0.8614 euros)