The patent war over COVID-19 vaccines has reached the courts in the U.S. — Reuters
The American biotechnology company Moderna has stated that the lawsuit filed by the German company CureVac regarding alleged infringement of patents on mRNA vaccine technology is baseless. The company also claims that the lawsuit contradicts a prior agreement between the two manufacturers.
CureVac accuses Moderna of using its patented technologies during the development of COVID-19 vaccines. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Delaware, U.S.
As Moderna stated in a court filing, CureVac agreed not to file a lawsuit against the company in exchange for permission to call an expert affiliated with Moderna as a witness in another case against BioNTech.
Moderna claims that CureVac filed the lawsuit to “persecute” the company after it was subsequently acquired by BioNTech.
In addition, Moderna stated that its vaccines do not infringe on CureVac’s patents, and that the patents themselves are invalid for other reasons. Specifically, the company claims that CureVac failed to provide the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with important information during the patent application process.
Representatives from CureVac, BioNTech, and Moderna did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding Moderna’s court filing.
CureVac filed a lawsuit against Moderna in April, alleging that the company copied its technology for stabilizing unstable mRNA for use in its own vaccines.
This case is part of a wave of high-stakes patent disputes among biotech companies seeking royalties for the use of technologies employed in popular COVID-19 vaccines.
In 2022, Moderna itself filed a lawsuit against Pfizer and BioNTech over alleged patent infringements related to their Comirnaty vaccine. That case is still ongoing.
Last year, the German company BioNTech acquired CureVac. In February, BioNTech separately filed a patent lawsuit in U.S. court against Moderna regarding its new COVID-19 vaccine, mNEXSPIKE.
In a statement on Friday, Moderna called both lawsuits “baseless.”
The company also noted that in 2023, CureVac promised not to file lawsuits against Moderna regarding certain patents after Moderna agreed to recuse itself from a conflict of interest involving an expert in the CureVac v. BioNTech patent case.
This expert had previously testified in Moderna’s favor in another patent case involving COVID-19 vaccines.
Moderna’s statement did not include specific details of the agreement between the companies.
“CureVac cannot benefit from breaching its own promise,” Moderna stated in a court filing.
Reuters reported on this.
An EU court accused the European Commission of withholding details of COVID-19 vaccine contracts.
mRNA technology, which gained worldwide recognition during the COVID-19 pandemic, is showing promising results in the fight against cancer. New studies show that personalized vaccines can help the immune system recognize tumors and slow the progression of the disease for many years.
