He attributes the other two pharmaceutical companies for having copied “without permission” his mRNA technology that he presented between 2010 and 2016
The American biotechnological laboratory Moderna has sued the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German BioNTech in court, accusing them of infringing their patents on mRNA, a fundamental technology for the development of the vaccine against covid-19.
In its patent infringement lawsuit, filed against Pfizer and BioNTech in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and in the Regional Court of Düsseldorf, Germany, Moderna contends that Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine and BioNTech, commercially known as ‘Comirnaty’, infringes its patents on mRNA technology, which were filed between 2010 and 2016 by Moderna.
“Pfizer and BioNTech copied this technology, without Moderna’s permission, to make Comirnaty,” the Massachusetts-based biotech says, adding that, in its view, both competitors copied two key features of Moderna’s proprietary technologies and that when the disease emerged “neither Pfizer nor BioNTech had Moderna’s level of experience in developing mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases” and knowingly followed Moderna’s lead in developing their own vaccine.
“We are filing these lawsuits to protect the groundbreaking mRNA technology platform that we pioneered, spent billions of dollars creating, and patented over the decade before the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Moderna CEO, Stephane Bancel.
In keeping with its commitment to equitable global access, in October 2020, Moderna pledged not to enforce its covid-19-related patents as long as the pandemic continued, so in March 2022, Moderna updated its commitment, clarifying that While he would never enforce his patents for any covid-19 vaccines used in the 92 low- and middle-income countries, he expected companies like Pfizer and BioNTech to respect his intellectual property rights.
“We believe that Pfizer and BioNTech illegally copied Moderna’s inventions and have continued to use them without permission,” said Shannon Thyme Klinger, Moderna’s chief legal officer, expecting Pfizer and BioNTech to compensate Moderna for continued use of Moderna’s patented technologies. Modern by Comirnaty.
In this sense, the laboratory has stressed that it is not seeking to withdraw Comirnaty from the market nor is it requesting a court order to prevent its sale in the future. In addition, Moderna is not seeking damages related to Pfizer’s sales in the 92 low- and middle-income countries, nor for Pfizer’s sales where the US Government would be liable for any damages, nor in connection with activities that occurred before March 8, 2022.
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