Moderna sues Pfizer/BioNTech for patent infringement in the development of the first COVID-19 vaccine. As per requirement, Pfizer copied fundamental mRNA technology which Moderna developed between 2010 and 2016 to later be used in the Comirnaty vaccine. The pharmaceutical company said they filed a complaint because the pandemic is in a new phaseso they can now defend their patents related to COVID-19.
Stephane Bansel, CEO of Moderna, said that the development of the platform and their own work on coronaviruses in 2015 and 2016 allowed them to create a vaccine for COVID-19 in record time.
We are filing these lawsuits to protect the revolutionary mRNA technology platform we developed, spent billions of dollars building, and patented ten years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawsuit was filed in the District Court of Massachusetts, USA, as well as in the District Court of Düsseldorf in Germany. Shannon Time Klinger, General Counsel for Moderna, stated that the company expects compensation for the use of the vaccine in those countries that are not included in the COVAX mechanism.
What modern technologies would Pfizer and BioNTech copy?
Moderna’s lawsuit isn’t the only one facing Pfizer/BioNTec, since a few weeks ago Curevac also accused them of patent infringement.. In accordance with AP, the German drugmaker sued BioNTech and its two subsidiaries in a Düsseldorf court, saying it was seeking fair compensation. For its part, BioNTech defended its work as original and stated that it is not uncommon for other companies to sue her after seeing that her COVID-19 vaccine was successful..
Moderna is also facing numerous lawsuits for patent infringement.. Arbutus Biopharma claims that it was they who developed the lipid nanoparticles that contain the mRNA. On the other hand, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) accused Moderna of excluding three scientists who were instrumental in the development of the vaccine.
According to the NIH, The scientists helped develop the genetic sequence used in the Moderna vaccine. and must be specified in the patent application. NIH director Dr. Francis Collins said the drug maker made a serious mistake by not giving credit to the people who created something that makes the company good money.
All of the lawsuits confirm that they are not intended to stop the sale of the disputed vaccines or to affect the 92 low- and middle-income countries that are part of COVAX. Some analysts point out that lawsuits can take two years or lessin the event of an out-of-court agreement.
Source: Hiper Textual
