COVID Coalition over, Moderna sues Pfizer and BioNTech for vaccines

Enlarge / Moderna says it doesn't want to stop production or the distribution of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, but he wants to be paid for a license for his claimed patents. Getty Images

Now that the vaccine race is over and vaccines are widely available, Moderna has sued Pfizer and BioNTech, claiming they infringed Moderna's mRNA patents from 2010 to 2016 .

Moderna, a Massachusetts-based company, filed a lawsuit against New York-based Pfizer and BioNTech in Dusseldorf, Germany over the companies' common Comirnaty vaccine and its similarities to Moderna's Spikevax. Moderna claims in the lawsuit that it does not want to stop vaccine production. The lawsuit also does not seek damages for sales made before March 8, 2022, sales in AMC 92 low- or middle-income countries, or sales where "the U.S. government would be liable for any damages." /p>

In a statement announcing the lawsuit, Moderna said it expects Pfizer and BioNTech to “respect its intellectual property rights” and “consider a commercially reasonable license” to sell vaccines outside of these terms. accepted, but the companies did not.

“Our mission to create a next generation of transformative medicines for patients by delivering on the promise of mRNA science cannot be achieved without a patent system that rewards and protects innovation,” said the director. Moderna's legal, Shannon Thyme Klinger, in the statement. Moderna did not specify its claim for damages in the lawsuit. A Pfizer spokesperson told The New York Times that the company was "surprised by the litigation."

Moderna says it began work on its "mRNA technology platform" in 2010 and patented it in 2015 and 2016. This work has enabled vaccine production at record speed, the CEO of ModernaStéphane Bancel in the press release.

mRNA-based vaccines use a packaging of fatty nanoparticles to deliver a slice of genetic code – the “messenger RNA” of viruses. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, the virus's spike protein blueprint is transmitted. With this little code, the body can train the immune system to target the spike protein, creating powerful antibodies to fight an infection.

Moderna's patent claims relate to chemical modifications to mRNA in the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, and to the lipid (fatty) coating.

MRNA-based vaccines have been shown to be effective against COVID-19 and could be the next breakthrough for influenza and other vaccines. Moderna requiring a license for all non-AMC-92 mRNA vaccines post-March 2022 could hinder this. The company has previously been criticized for dragging its feet in sharing its vaccine formula for global distribution and even won a "2020 Shkreli Award" for raising the price of its vaccine after receiving $1 billion in funding. governmental.

But big pharma is suing each other for life-saving innovations, it's not uncommon. Nor do such lawsuits come after public funding. While Moderna has, as The New York Times points out, accepted $2.5 billion of taxpayer money to develop its vaccine, this is separate from the patents underlying the delivery mechanisms, which Moderna says go back further.

Medical journalist Matthew Herper says in STAT (paywall) that pharmaceutical patent litigation is "advancing at a glacial pace" and mRNA development is inherently difficult. Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech are all being sued by a company across town from Moderna, Alnylam, for the fatty nanoparticle work. And the origins of mRNA delivery can go