Lawsuit from Moderna to Pfizer-BioNTech: “You copied our mRNA vaccine technology”

US pharmaceutical and biotechnology firm Moderna has filed a lawsuit against pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, accusing them of patent infringement while developing the ‘first Covid-19 vaccine’.

The World Health Organization (WHO) approved the emergency use of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the German biotechnology company BioNTech in cooperation with the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer on January 1, 2021. The team that developed the vaccine is headed by Prof. Dr . Ugur SAHIN and Dr. Ozlem TURECI.

On January 6, 2021, the European Union (EU) had approved the recommendation of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the Covid-19 vaccine of the American pharmaceutical company Moderna.

Moderna claimed that the mRNA technology they had developed before the pandemic had been copied by Pfizer and its partner. In the case petitions submitted in Germany and the USA, compensation was demanded.

In Moderna’s statement, it was stated that Pfizer/BioNTech committed two separate intellectual property rights violations. One of them is the first mRNA structure that in-house scientists began to develop in 2010, the use of which was approved in humans in 2015. The second is the coding of the spike protein of the corona virus.

Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said in a statement: ”We are opening these lawsuits to protect the mRNA technology that we are pioneers of. We have invested billions of dollars to develop it and received patents before the pandemic.”

Pfizer explained that they could not comment on the matter because they had not yet received legal notices and documents.