Vaxcyte's VAX-31 Meets Phase 3 Endpoints, Stock Hits 52-Week High

Pfizer is enforcing a Belgian court judgment against Poland and Romania over unpaid COVID-19 vaccine orders by targeting an unusual source of leverage: air traffic control fees. Eurocontrol, the intergovernmental body that coordinates European air traffic management, has frozen transfers of airline route charges owed to Poland's and Romania's air navigation agencies after Pfizer moved to enforce an April court ruling requiring the two countries to pay a combined roughly $2.1 billion for vaccine doses they declined to accept under a 2021 European Union contract. The Brussels court rejected Poland's and Romania's arguments for abandoning their pandemic-era purchase commitments and ordered them to accept and pay for €1.9 billion, or about $2.2 billion, of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, with Poland accounting for €1.3 billion of that amount and Romania for €600 million. Eurocontrol has already withheld air-navigation fees from Poland and imposed a precautionary seizure tied to Romania, though Poland's air traffic agency says airline fees provide more than 80% of its income and Polish and Romanian aviation authorities have warned that freezing those funds could threaten essential operations and air safety. Both countries are challenging the rulings, and Romania's health minister said the ruling remains enforceable during an appeal.