The Pfizer scandal. Exchange of words between Vlad Voiculescu and Alexandru Rafila: “Lying seriously damages health”
The former Ministers of Health Vlad Voiculescu and Alexandru Rafila accuse each other, on Saturday, in the case of the trial with Pfizer regarding the purchase of anti-Covid vaccines. Voiculescu claims that “someone from the Ministry of Health” told him that Rafila knew exactly what the consequences were for Romania if he did not respond to Pfizer's offer. Rafila asks Voiculescu, if he has evidence, to present it to the criminal investigation bodies.
“The officials from the Ministry of Health just realized that she is fat,” wrote the former USR Minister of Health, Vlad Voiculescu, on Facebook.
“Someone from the Ministry of Health just called me to tell me that Mr. Rafila knew exactly what the consequences would be for Romania if he did not respond to Pfizer's offer – that Romania would pay hundreds of millions of euros more – but he would have allowed himself to be convinced by those close to him who told him: “let Sandule go, it's Cîțu's damage, the bigger the better. You didn't see that they were burying Voiculescu, even though he didn't decide anything…” I'm shocked, I admit that it's hard for me to process something like that,” Voiculescu says, according to News.ro.
Rafila: “Lying seriously damages health”
In reply, the former PSD Minister of Health says that “lying seriously damages health”.
“In addition to the inability to accept his own mistakes or those of his party colleague, Dr. Ioana Mihăilă, who threw Romania into an impossible situation, that of having to purchase 39 million doses of the COVID vaccine that we did not need, Mr. Vlad Voiculescu keeps covering himself with untrue statements in the public space. Mr. Voiculescu runs away from any responsibility and tries to link the situation that even USR representatives have created by me and the team of the Ministry of Health”, Rafila accuses Vlad Voiculescu.
Rafila states that, in reality, within the limits of legal powers, he managed to renegotiate and sell approximately 7.5 million doses, which reduced Romania's loss by approximately 150 million euros.
“Can Mr. Vlad Voiculescu answer if a renegotiation would have been possible, given the legal limitations that do not allow us to pay for something we do not receive? And, under these conditions, how much would Romania have had to pay? If USR had nothing to do with this acquisition, why does the name of Mrs. Ioana Mihăilă appear on the memorandum? It goes beyond any limit of understanding to be considered guilty for the fact that I did not “repair” the mistake made by the Cîţu government and, implicitly, by the Minister of Health at that time, Mrs. Mihăilă, by signing a contract”, says Rafila.
“To present evidence”
The former PSD minister also says that “Voiculescu's statements are certainly part of a maneuver to avoid the consequences of his own decisions” and the “discussions” he invokes, today, in a new post, never took place, as they do not correspond to his moral and professional profile.
“If he has evidence in this regard, I invite him to present it to the criminal investigation bodies, not to release false information in the public space, as is customary. It is degrading for a European parliamentarian and honorary adviser to the President of Romania to resort to such tactics, in which morality and truth are completely lacking”, considers Alexandru Rafila.
The case of Pfizer vs. Romania
A Belgian court on Wednesday ordered Poland and Romania to take over a delivery of 1.9 billion euros ($2.2 billion) worth of COVID-19 vaccines produced by the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer. According to the court statement, Romania has to pay approximately 600 million euros.
Pfizer sued the Romanian state, in Brussels, in January 2024, for allegedly violating the contract for the purchase of anti-Covid vaccines concluded during the pandemic.
“Following a prolonged breach of contractual commitments and a period of discussions held in good faith between the parties, Pfizer and BioNTech have taken the difficult decision to initiate official proceedings against Romania”, announced a Pfizer representative at the time.
Rafila explained then that enormous amounts of anti-Covid vaccine were contracted, which Romania would no longer need, as it is about 28 million doses of vaccine from Pfizer (worth approximately 550 million euros), negotiated by contract and which our country no longer ordered and, implicitly, no longer received.
“There is no legal basis for these financial compensations and, obviously, we could not order the remaining 28 million doses of vaccine that remained to be delivered under this contract, given that in Romania the interest in vaccination practically does not exist at this moment,” said Minister Alexandru Rafila.
