Belgium banned from disposing of €200 million of Covid material

A Brussels court is prohibiting the Belgian state from destroying €207 million worth of out-of-date anti-coronavirus products.

The products include vaccines, medicines and tests which have reached their expiry date, Le Vif reports.

The health ministry intended to get rid of them but the effort was blocked as a result of an ongoing financial dispute between the federal government and its former distributor and official stockist, Medista.

Since the change of service provider, the health ministry has been reluctant to pay a large invoice from Medista for the removal of products destined for destruction. A recovery procedure is under way, as well as other legal actions concerning the payment of various other invoices.

But according to Medista, the absence of an independent and complete inventory of the stock to be destroyed makes it impossible to settle the disputes.

The company therefore brought an emergency action before the court to prevent the destruction of the products pending the completion of an inventory.

Without ruling on the need for such an inventory, the court granted Medista's request and prohibited the Belgian state from “destroying or otherwise rendering unavailable” the contested stock until at least 29 August, when a judge will rule on whether or not it would be useful to commission an independent expert to carry out an inventory of the goods.

If that ends up being the case, the federal government would then have to keep the products until the inventory is carried out, which could take months and cost several tens of thousands of euros.