Moderna Sues Pfizer and BioNTech Over Covid Vaccine
The vaccine manufacturer Moderna sued Pfizer and BioNTech on Friday, claiming that its rivals’ Covid-19 shot violates its patents protecting its groundbreaking technology.
Moderna said that Pfizer copied two features of its patented technology. First, Pfizer took four vaccine candidates into clinical testing, but ultimately proceeded with a vaccine with the same mRNA technology as the Moderna vaccine. Moderna said it was the first company to validate this technology in human trials in 2015, and that neither Pfizer nor BioNTech had its level of experience in developing mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases.
Second, Moderna claims that Pfizer and BioNTech copied its full-length spike protein formulation for a coronavirus, which Moderna had created years before Covid-19 emerged. Coronaviruses refer to a large family of viruses that cause mild to moderate upper respiratory tract illnesses, according to the N.I.H. The more serious ones include SARS, MERS and Covid-19.