(Updated with feedback from Pfizer)
by Daniel Trotta
Aug 26 (Reuters) – Moderna is suing Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for patent infringement in the development of the first COVID-19 vaccine approved in the United States, claiming they copied technology it developed long before the pandemic.
This lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in Massachusetts. It will also be filed in the Düsseldorf Regional Court in Germany, Moderna said in a statement on Friday.
“We are filing this lawsuit to protect the innovative mRNA (technology) that we developed, invested billions of dollars in, and patented in the decade before the COVID pandemic. -19″, said Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, in the press release.
A Pfizer spokesperson said by email that “Pfizer/BioNTech has not yet fully investigated the complaint, but we are surprised by the litigation given that the COVID-19 vaccine was based on BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA technology and developed by both BioNTech and Pfizer.”
Pfizer/BioNTech will “vigorously” defend itself against Moderna’s allegations, the spokesperson added.
BioNTech did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Moderna claims that Pfizer/BioNTech copied, without permission, messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine technology that the group patented between 2010 and 2016, long before COVID-19 emerged in 2019.
Moderna added that Pfizer/BioNTech appropriated two types of intellectual property.
One involves an mRNA structure that Moderna claims it began developing in 2010.
The second alleged breach relates to the coding of a complete spike protein that Moderna teams, according to the company, developed when creating a vaccine against the coronavirus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). (Report Daniel Trotta, with the participation of Mrinalika Roy and Amruta Khandekar in Bangalore and Zuzanna Szymanska in Berlin; French version Valentine Baldassari, edited by Kate Entringer and Sophie Louet)