Moderna is suing Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for patent infringement linked to the development of the first COVID-19 vaccines, alleging that mRNA technology it developed before the pandemic was copied.
The lawsuit, seeking unspecified financial damages, was filed in the US and Germany, reports BBC.
Pfizer, which said it was “surprised” by the action, intends to “vigorously defend” itself against the allegations.
Moderna said Pfizer/BioNTech copied two key elements of its intellectual property, one involving a “chemical modification” which its scientists, it said, were the first to demonstrate in human trials in 2015, meaning the vaccine “avoids provoking an undesirable immune response”.
The second alleged infringement relates to how both vaccines target the distinctive spike protein on the outside of the virus.
Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel said they were filing the lawsuits to “protect the innovative mRNA technology platform we pioneered, invested billions of dollars in creating, and patented during the decade preceding the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Patent disputes often take place when new technology is developed and both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna are already facing other lawsuits relating to their respective mRNA platforms.
Moderna itself is in an ongoing dispute with the US National Institutes of Health over the credit for key patents relating to mRNA technology.
In July, German biotech company CureVac filed a lawsuit against BioNTech, claiming it violated patents linked to the engineering of certain mRNA molecules and seeking “fair compensation”.
In a statement Pfizer said it had not yet fully reviewed Moderna’s complaint but that its vaccine was based on its own proprietary mRNA technology. A spokesperson said: “We remain confident in our intellectual property supporting the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and will vigorously defend against the allegations of the lawsuit.”
BBC article – Moderna suing Pfizer over Covid vaccine technology (Open access)
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