(Reuters) – The British laboratory GSK on Wednesday filed a complaint against Pfizer in a Delaware court in the United States for patent infringement.
The pharmaceutical group accuses its American rival of having violated four of its patents relating to the antigen used by its vaccine Arexy against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), by producing its own competing vaccine Abrysvo.
New York-based Pfizer said in a statement it was “confident in its intellectual property stance” and would “strongly defend” its right to offer Abrysvo to RSV patients.
Both vaccines were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May for use in adults over 60. These are the first vaccines approved to prevent RSV, which causes about 14,000 deaths each year in the United States among adults over the age of 65, according to government estimates.
According to analysts, the market for RSV vaccines could exceed $10 billion by 2030.
The development of these vaccines is an integral part of both companies’ strategies to replace drugs that will soon face competition from cheaper generics.
(Reporting Blake Brittain in Washington; with the contribution of Michael Erman in New York; French version Gaëlle Sheehan, editing by Tangi Salaün)
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