by Trevor Schakohl
Moderna is filing patent infringement lawsuits against Pfizer and BioNTech in U.S. district court and German regional court Friday in connection with the two companies’ COVID-19 vaccine, Moderna announced.
Moderna alleges Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty vaccine breaches its mRNA technology patents submitted between 2010 and 2016. It claims they developed their vaccine by copying the technology Moderna used to make its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, Spikevax.
Moderna sues Pfizer and BioNTech, alleging infringement of patents central to Moderna’s innovative #mRNA technology platform.
Read more in our press release: https://t.co/ftoyJrhoPR— Moderna (@moderna_tx) August 26, 2022
“We are filing these lawsuits to protect the innovative mRNA technology platform that we pioneered, invested billions of dollars in creating, and patented during the decade preceding the COVID-19 pandemic,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said. “This foundational platform, which we began building in 2010, along with our patented work on coronaviruses in 2015 and 2016, enabled us to produce a safe and highly effective COVID-19 vaccine in record time after the pandemic struck.”
Moderna insisted it is not trying to remove Comirnaty from the market or win damages for actions taken before March 8, 2022. The company said it recognized “the need to ensure continued access to these lifesaving vaccines.”
In a statement, Pfizer and BioNTech told the Daily Caller News Foundation they have “not yet fully reviewed the complaint” but are “surprised by the litigation.”
“We remain confident in our intellectual property supporting the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and will vigorously defend against the allegations of the lawsuit,” they said.
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Trevor Schakohl is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Moderna Vaccine” by Mufid Majnun.
