Moderna sues Pfizer and BioNTech over COVID-19 vaccine patent

American biotech company Moderna announced Friday that it will file a lawsuit against Pfizer and BioNTech for patent infringement over its messenger RNA vaccine against COVID-19.

“Moderna is convinced that Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty Covid-19 vaccine infringes patents filed by Moderna between 2010 and 2016, covering Moderna’s core messenger RNA technology,” the company said in a statement.

modern and Pfizer/BioNTech were the first companies in the sector to manufacture vaccines against coronavirusvery soon after the start of the pandemic, thanks to messenger RNA technology, which allows human cells to make proteins present in the virus to train the immune system to recognize and neutralize it.

Until then, vaccines relied on weakened or inactivated forms of the virus to train the body to defend itself, and the development of remedies, as well as clinical trials to verify their safety, could take several years.

The use of messenger RNA technology in vaccines of modern and Pfizer/BioNTechamong the most injected in the world, was the culmination of four decades of research that has overcome numerous obstacles.

“This innovative technology was crucial to the development of Moderna’s own messenger RNA vaccine, Spikevax. Pfizer and BioNTech copied this technology, without Moderna’s permission, to make Comirnaty.” add the declaration of modern.