Moderna (MRNA) said Friday it is suing Pfizer and BioNTech (PFE/BNTX), alleging the rival drug makers infringed three patents on the technology it used for its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
In two lawsuits filed in U.S. federal court, and Germany where BioNTech is based, Moderna said it is seeking monetary damages for Pfizer/BioNTech's alleged use of its technology in countries where it is enforcing its patents — that excludes 92 low- and middle-income countries. Moderna is only asking for damages tied to alleged infringement that occurred after March 7.
Pfizer and its biotech partner, BioNTech, say they were caught off guard by the litigation.
"Pfizer/BioNTech has not yet fully reviewed the complaint but we are surprised by the litigation given the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was based on BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA technology and developed by both BioNTech and Pfizer," the companies said in a statement.
Moderna — the first company to select a drug candidate for clinical trials in the U.S. — contends that Pfizer had multiple options it could have chosen for its vaccine and opted for the one most similar to Moderna. The company also claims Pfizer and BioNTech copied the technology used to deliver the vaccine formula into arms, so that the body does not attack it as a foreign intruder.
The lawsuit could mark a more litigious phase of the post-pandemic world. In 2020, Moderna — then only 10 years old — pledged not to enforce its mRNA patents during the pandemic as much of the world struggled to get inoculated. While Pfizer said it was surprised by the litigation, Moderna said in March of this year it announced that it expected drug makers to "respect" its intellectual property.
"Moderna refrained from asserting its patents earlier so as not to distract from efforts to bring the pandemic to an end as quickly as possible," Moderna said in its lawsuit.
In its lawsuit against Pfizer, Moderna contends other drug candidates that Pfizer explored prior to approval didn't include Moderna's technology. "However, as Pfizer and BioNTech got further along in their clinical development, they ultimately focused exclusively on vaccine designs that used Moderna’s patented technologies," Moderna said in its lawsuit.
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