Moderna is Suing Pfizer for Copying Their Technology Now That The Pandemic is Almost Over

While most of us might probably group different vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna into the same group, that’s definitely not the case for the companies themselves.

And just yesterday (26 August), biotechnology company Moderna announced that it will be suing Pfizer and BioNTech, who have also produced many of the common COVID-19 vaccines that we know of.

The reason?

Because the technology that Pfizer and BioNTech have used in their COVID-19 vaccines apparently infringes on Moderna’s patents.

In particular, Pfizer and BioNTech have been sued as Moderna believes that they copied vital parts of the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology that was first invented by Moderna.

This mRNA technology was then allegedly used to create the Comirnaty vaccine.

And as most of us know, the multiple mRNA vaccines have played a pretty important role throughout the COVID-19 pandemic thus far, especially in countries such as the United States.

With that, it probably also goes without saying that these vaccines have raked in large amounts of profits, with Pfizer earning nearly US$27 billion (approximately S$51 billion) and Moderna earning around US$18 billion (approximately S$25 billion) from the vaccines just last year.

Which makes the possible reason behind the lawsuit that much clearer.

Pfizer and BioNTech “Could Have Avoided” Using Moderna’s Technology

Moderna, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, clarified that it had patents for its mRNA technology from 2010 to 2016, allowing the invention of its Spikevax shot, which is more commonly known now as the Moderna vaccine against COVID-19.

Based on the lawsuit filed by the company in the US District Court in Massachusetts, Pfizer and BioNTech “took four different candidates into clinical testing, including options that would have steered clear of Moderna’s innovative path by using unmodified mRNA”.

This meant that they could have chosen alternative ways of developing their vaccine, but chose not to in the end.

Instead, they “decided to proceed with a vaccine that has the same exact mRNA chemical modification to its vaccine”, and “discarded those alternatives and copied Moderna’s patented technology”, the lawsuit added.

Apart from the alleged copying of Moderna’s mRNA, Pfizer and BioNTech have also been accused of replicating Moderna’s method of encoding a full-length spike protein in a lipid nanoparticle in the Comirnaty vaccine as well.

In addition to the United States, Moderna also claimed that it will be filing a similar lawsuit in Germany too.

Will Not Ask for Vaccines to Be Banned but Seeking Damages

However, despite accusing Pfizer and BioNTech of copying its technology, Moderna also mentioned that it will not request for the courts to ban the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from the current market, and will not ask for it to be removed in the future as well.

Instead, it will be seeking damages from Pfizer and BioNTech, and will be seeking them from the sales generated from 8 March this year onwards.

Moderna will also not be seeking damages that occurred from the sale of the vaccine to 92 lower- and middle-income countries.

Even though Moderna previously assured the public at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that it will not be “enforcing intellectual property” throughout the pandemic, it edited its statement on 7 March this year for the pledge to only be applicable to lower-income countries.

Which means that Moderna technically hasn’t gone against its pledge.

With regards to the lawsuit, Moderna chief officer Stephane Bancel also addressed the reason behind filing it in a statement.

“We are filing these lawsuits to protect the innovative mRNA technology platform that we pioneered, invested billions of dollars in creating, and patented during the decade preceding the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

Impact on Pfizer and BioNTech

As for what Pfizer and BioNTech have to say, Pfizer responded that the company has not been served with a lawsuit, while BioNTech has yet to respond to the issue.

And since then, Pfizer’s shares have fallen by 0.8% in early trading before the markets in the United States opened, and BioNTech’s depositary receipts decreased by 2.1% in America as well.

Moderna’s shares, however, have yet to experience substantial changes for now.

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Another Company Sued All 3 Earlier This Year

And if you’re wondering about the history behind vaccine companies suing each other, you might be surprised to hear that another company previously sued all three companies (Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech) just a few months ago.

Earlier this year, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, which is also based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, filed a lawsuit against the three companies, claiming that the lipid nanoparticle invented by it was used in both the Comirnaty and Spikevax vaccines.

After being sued, Moderna proceeded to get into a tussle of sorts with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States regarding whether or not Alnylam’s scientists should be included in the list of inventors for the patents that Moderna owns for its vaccines.

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