Moderna Inc. sued Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, claiming the technology in their COVID-19 shot infringes on its patents, a move that sets the stage for a massive legal clash between the vaccine titans.
Moderna accused Pfizer and BioNTech of violating intellectual property rights on key elements of Moderna’s messenger RNA technology in developing the Comirnaty vaccine. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna said it had patents from 2010 to 2016 on the mRNA technology that made its Spikevax shot possible but that the other two companies copied the technology without permission.
Pfizer and BioNTech “took four different candidates into clinical testing, including options that would have steered clear of Moderna’s innovative path by using unmodified mRNA,” according a lawsuit filed Friday in the US District Court in Massachusetts. “Ultimately, however, Pfizer and BioNTech discarded those alternatives and copied Moderna’s patented technology.”
