Romania seeks to swap EUR 600 mln Pfizer debt for medicines

Romania is negotiating with US pharmaceutical group Pfizer to convert a EUR 600 million payment obligation stemming from a COVID-19 vaccine contract into supplies of innovative medicines, particularly for oncology and rare disease patients.

Health minister Alexandru Rogobete and finance minister Alexandru Nazare held an initial round of talks in Washington, describing the discussions as balanced and focused on identifying practical solutions, Economedia.ro reported. They proposed continuing negotiations to transform the financial liability into medical products that could directly benefit patients.

Rogobete stressed that the initiative should be seen not merely as settling a debt, but as an opportunity to generate tangible gains for the healthcare system.

The payment obligation follows a ruling by the French-speaking Court of First Instance in Brussels, which ordered Romania to pay EUR 600 million to Pfizer for vaccine doses it declined to receive in 2023. The decision is not final and can still be appealed.

The original contracts were signed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand and uncertainty were both high. By 2023, however, vaccination demand had dropped significantly as infection rates declined and large parts of the population had already been immunised, leaving Romania with surplus supplies.

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