Pfizer stops corona vaccine shipments to Israel
The company stated that Israel has failed to pay for the last batch of vaccines delivered
Jerusalem24 – The Jerusalem Post reported that Pfizer has halted shipments of coronavirus vaccines to Israel over the country failing to transfer payment for the last 2.5 million doses it supplied to the country.
Senior officials at Pfizer have said they are concerned that the government-in-transition will not pay up and the company does not want to be taken advantage of. They said that they do not understand how such a situation can occur in an organized country.
A shipment of 700,000 doses was expected to arrive in Israel on Sunday but was delayed until further notice.
Pfizer told the Post that the company has completed all deliveries to Israel under its initial agreement to provide its COVID-19 vaccine, signed in November 2020.
Israel paid for the first 10 million vaccines it received to manage the majority of its mass vaccination campaign. But when Israel started to run short in February, an agreement was made between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla to supply the country with the additional doses it needed.
The Israeli Health Ministry had been putting pressure on the government to approve the purchase of an additional NIS 3.5 billion – more than 30 million vaccines – even before Passover and the government was set to convene last Monday. However, the meeting was postponed indefinitely due to a conflict between Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz.
