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Moderna Pharmaceuticals filed a lawsuit against companies Pfizer and BioNTech, which it accuses of infringing the mRNA patent that the company filed between 2010 and 2016 as part of the development of mRNA technology, used in the recent Covid-19 vaccine.
According to Moderna, U.S.-based Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, which developed a coronavirus vaccine of their own employing the mRNA technology, illegally copied Moderna’s inventions and have continued to use them without permission, said the drugmaker’s legal director Shannon Thyme Klinger.
According to the brief released Friday, Moderna believes Pfizer and BioNTech copied two key features of Moderna’s patented technologies that are critical to the success of mRNA vaccines, and asserts that both companies lacked the level of expertise necessary for the development of mRNA technology-based vaccines when the coronavirus pandemic broke out in 2019.
The Massachusetts-based company argues that in October 2020 it pledged not to reclaim its rights to covid-19-related patents as long as the pandemic continued.
However, it argues that in March 2022 it updated this commitment by assuring that it would not demand any claims in the 92 countries considered low- and middle-income by the World Health Organization’s COVAX program and by the GAVI foundation.
In the note, Moderna argues that as of March this year, when the collective fight against Covid-19 entered a new phase and vaccine supply ceased to be a barrier to access in many parts of the world, the company expected companies such as Pfizer and BioNTech to respect its intellectual property rights and would consider a commercially reasonable license if requested for other markets.
Moderna stresses that its complaint does not seek the withdrawal of Cominarty, the trade name of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, or compensation for sales in the 92 countries where the COVAX program has committed to assist in the distribution of the vaccine.
It also specifies that its claims are limited to the period after March 2022.
The company, which notes that it has filed complaints in the United States and Germany, does not provide details on the financial compensation it is demanding from the two companies.
