The following is an excerpt from Reuters.
A tangle of high-stakes U.S. patent disputes over Covid-19 vaccines could be tamed by court rulings or grow even more complex next year.
In the headlining fight, Moderna sued Pfizer and BioNTech in August, accusing them of infringing three patents on mRNA-related innovations Moderna said it developed before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pfizer and BioNTech responded earlier this month that Moderna had overstated its contributions to the field of mRNA technology.
They asked a Massachusetts federal court to declare Moderna’s patents in the lawsuit invalid and dismiss the case.
The companies also argued Moderna had waived its right to bring the lawsuit when it pledged not to sue other vaccine makers during the pandemic.
LNPs may be important to future mRNA-based vaccines and treatments being developed to fight a myriad of other diseases including cancer, influenza and HIV.
More patent lawsuits over the nanoparticles and related mRNA-delivery technology may be around the corner in a field with many players and high financial hopes.
Pfizer earned over $26.4 billion from sales of its vaccines in the first nine months of 2022, while Moderna sold over $13.5 billion worth of its vaccine over the same period, according to company filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
All of the infringement lawsuits are requesting money damages.
None of the companies have asked courts to stop production or sales of the allegedly infringing vaccines.
Link to article here.
