The Minister of Health commented on the case lost by Romania with Pfizer and explained that, although the amount of approximately 600 million euros must be paid, there is a possibility that the state can negotiate obtaining alternative medicines.
Invited to Antena 3, the Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, commented on Sunday, April 5, the situation of the contract with Pfizer and the case lost by Romania in the first instance, regarding the 39 million doses of the anti-COVID-19 vaccine.
The official confirmed that the Romanian state will have to pay the amount owed anyway, but showed that there is an opportunity to negotiate obtaining alternative medicines or other products needed by the population in exchange for this money.
“I hope that these negotiations will lead in a good direction and that we can introduce into Romania medicines that people need. We will give the money anyway. We have seen all kinds of speculations and discussions here as well. Things are very simple. Whether it suits us or not, today we have this invoice (…). We have two options, we pay the money and bring a vaccine that we destroy or we try a team effort (…) so that this money or at least a large percentage of this amount we can introduce some new drugs to people,” said Alexandru Rogobete.
In the same context, the Minister of Health stated that Romania does not have enough space to store the 39 million doses of vaccine and that their delivery will be done in stages, according to the reasoning of the Court of Justice of the European Union.
“A dose costs about 19 euros, approximately. I don’t know the cost of destruction. We also destroyed about 3.5 million doses of vaccine, which expired in 2023-2024”, he explained.
The contract could be turned down in 2021
Alexandru Rogobete confirmed that, in 2021, the Romanian state had five days to refuse the contract that now costs us approximately 600 million euros.
“The European Commission and the company, concretely, sent in May 2021 the offer for a new contract, i.e. the third contract, with a quantity of 39 million doses. At that time, in the stocks in Romania, from all four producers, there were approximately 11 million doses, enough for that year and, as the vaccination was going, enough for the following year as well. Very importantly, it was not the last contract that this company could make”, explained Alexandru Rogobete.
The minister pointed out that the only official who realistically evaluated the situation and refused to sign was the former minister Nazare, who was later changed from his position.
“The only one who at that time was anchored in reality, that’s what I’m saying now, when I see the numbers and what happened, was Minister Nazare, who realized these huge amounts, seeing the other contracts, with the other producers, and who didn’t want to sign. Please, as a result of this reality, he was changed from his position”, he completed.
