Vaccine manufacturer Moderna sued Pfizer and BioNTech for patent infringement on Friday, alleging that the rival drugmakers copied Moderna’s mRNA technology used in its COVID-19 vaccines.
Driving the news: Both the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines use a recently developed mRNA technology, which instructs cells to make part of a protein to trigger an immune response, per NPR. Moderna’s vaccine is different from traditional vaccines, which generally use parts of an actual virus to trigger the immune system.
- “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,” the company said in a news release. “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.”
In 2020, Moderna said it would not try to enforce its patents while the coronavirus pandemic was ongoing. In March this year, the company said it would not pursue litigation in low and middle-income countries.
- Moderna received nearly $10 billion in government funding to develop the vaccine, which was based on its previously patented technologies.
- Moderna said it is bringing lawsuits in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts — where it is based — and the Regional Court of Düsseldorf in Germany, which is where BioNTech is based, according to The New York Times.
What the lawsuit means for vaccines: In its news release, Moderna said it is not trying to have the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine removed from the market. The company is not seeking damages for sales in 92 low- and middle-income countries, or for sales before March 8, 2022.
Moderna does not have an estimate for the amount of damages it is seeking, per The New York Times.
Pfizer’s response: Jerica Pitts, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, told The New York Times the companies were “surprised by the litigation,” but they “remain confident in our intellectual property supporting the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and will vigorously defend against the allegations of the lawsuit.”