Moderna Sues Pfizer and BioNTech over mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines
On Friday 26th August, Moderna filed patent infringement lawsuits against Pfizer and BioNTech, claiming the pair used Moderna’s patented technology without permission in their Covid-19 vaccine. The news comes just two years after Moderna announced a “patent pledge,” saying the company would not enforce its patents during the pandemic.
The mRNA vaccine in question thrust all three companies onto the world stage during the COVID-19 pandemic. It began its official rollout in late 2020, becoming the backbone of the US vaccination strategy. The mRNA jab helped to vaccinate the world — and inevitably made billions of dollars while doing so.
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Now Moderna is claiming that Pfizer and BioNTech illegally copied key elements of Moderna’s mRNA technology when developing their Covid vaccines. Both Pfizer and BioNTech deny the allegations and preparing to defend themselves.
In the official news release published on Friday, Moderna described the grounds for the lawsuit against Pfizer and BioNTech as “infringing patents central to (its) innovative mRNA technology platform.”
"Moderna believes that Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty infringes patents Moderna filed between 2010 and 2016 covering Moderna's foundational mRNA technology. This groundbreaking technology was critical to the development of Moderna's own mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, Spikevax. Pfizer and BioNTech copied this technology, without Moderna's permission, to make Comirnaty," the news release stated.
Both Pfizer and BioNTech deny the allegations and preparing to defend themselves.
In addressing its previous patient pledge, Moderna is claiming that “it made clear that while (the company) would never enforce its patents for any COVID-19 vaccine used in the 92 low- and middle-income countries in the GAVI COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC 92), Moderna expected companies such as Pfizer and BioNTech to respect its intellectual property rights and would consider a commercially reasonable license should they request one for other markets. Pfizer and BioNTech have failed to do so”.
"Pfizer/BioNTech has not yet fully reviewed the complaint but we are surprised by the litigation given the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine was based on BioNTech's proprietary mRNA technology and developed by both BioNTech and Pfizer. We remain confident in our intellectual property supporting the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and will vigorously defend against the allegations of the lawsuit," Pfizer explained in a written statement to CNN.
In an official press release statement, BioNTech said it "will vigorously defend against all allegations of patent infringement. BioNTech also values and respects valid and enforceable intellectual property rights of others and remains confident in its intellectual property."
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