Hungary and Poland are targeting the European Commission for ordering too many plugs and forcing them on member states.

“Regarding the ongoing slander against Hungary by @pfizer: In the @EU_Commission, Pfizer purchases were shrouded in suspicion of corruption!” Zoltan Kovacs, the government spokesman, wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “It is obvious that these vaccines were ordered and forced on member states in unnecessarily large quantities.”

Both countries have taken aim at the European Commission’s massive vaccine procurement effort during the pandemic, which observers say may be part of a growing number of lawsuits related to the program, which many accuse of being opaque and tainted by corruption.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed in October 2022 that it has an ongoing investigation into the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines in the EU, while Romania’s Anti-Corruption Directorate, or DNA, said on Wednesday that it had placed former Prime Minister Florin Citu under criminal investigation for abuse of office over vaccine purchases during the pandemic.

On Tuesday, a first hearing in the lawsuit against Poland by Pfizer, along with BioNTech, took place at the Francophone Court of First Instance in Brussels. According to Politico Europe, the hearing was purely procedural, with the two parties only agreeing to postpone their trial date until January 30, 2024.

Pfizer announced in November that it was suing Poland for not accepting and not paying for 60 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine that were supposed to reach the country last year. The cost of these wasted shots is estimated at 1.2 billion euros.

The Polish purchase was part of the massive deal that the European Commission struck with Pfizer in 2021 to supply 1.1 billion doses to European countries. However, it turned out over time that some countries had overestimated their vaccine needs.

In the case of Poland, then-Health Minister Adam Niedzielski announced in April 2022 that the country had been forced to halt the purchase of 60 million doses due to economic pressure from the war in Ukraine. In his public statements, Niedzielski referred to the burden Poland had shouldered in helping Ukrainian refugees flee Russia’s invasion.

A total of nine countries from Central and Eastern Europe complained at the time about oversupply, leading the European Commission to renegotiate the original terms of the deal with Pfizer, although Poland did not sign the revised agreement, the terms of which Niedzielski described as “outrageous.”

Pfizer, with its partner BionTech, also filed a lawsuit against Hungary in January, Politico reported Tuesday, citing court documents.

Like Poland, the Hungarian government blamed the war in Ukraine for not paying for the COVID-19 vaccines it had ordered when it informed the US company in November 2022. In Hungary’s case, the order involved 3 million doses of vaccines worth 60 million euros, Politico reported.

Pfizer said it was in discussions with the Hungarian government. Polish Health Minister Katarzyna Sojka also said in November that she hoped it would still be possible to reach an agreement with the pharmaceutical company.

The Hungarian government has long been critical of the EU’s joint vaccine procurement program, even withdrawing from it in May 2021, citing insufficient reserves and the impending construction of its own vaccine factory, which ultimately was not built.

But just six months after pulling out of the joint vaccine procurement program, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban changed his mind and re-joined it in November 2021. Orban’s press secretary said at the time that Hungary had ordered 9.5 million doses worth 195 million euros.

The legal wrangling is already having an effect in Poland. As a consequence of the conflict with Pfizer, Poland is currently not receiving upgraded vaccines from Pfizer, with Poles relying solely on vaccines from Canada’s Novavax. In a country of 38 million people, the government announced that it had ordered 1 million doses of the customized vaccine from Novavax, which targets the XBB.1.5 variant circulating globally and is only available to people aged 12 and older.

The online registration system, which opened this week, can be confusing for patients, however, as they are offered a mix of Novavax targeting the newer variants and older Pfizer and Moderna shots that Poland still has in stock and needs to use up.

Another consequence of the conflict is that the Pfizer-produced drug used to treat COVID-19, Paxlovid, is not currently funded by the Polish government, and its pharmacy cost is 5,200 zloty (1,200 euros).