2023-12-15 08:09:38
The vaccine developer Curevac is making losses due to commitments that the company made in the turbulent Corona year of 2020. And then there is the patent dispute with competitor Biontech.
Tübingen.
While the Tübingen biotech company Curevac failed to develop the corona vaccine and is struggling with losses, Biontech became a star during the crisis. Biontech made huge profits and used its taxes to save an entire city from debt.
According to the company, Curevac will take years to develop its own sellable drug. This means further losses because the money goes into research. Curevac is also in the middle of several patent disputes with its billion-dollar Mainz competitor Biontech, and serious decisions will soon be made. The new boss Alexander Zehnder is confident.
“Patent disputes in the pharmaceutical industry are very normal. This is an industry that is based on innovation and depends on innovation. Once products have been developed, patent law provides a certain protection mechanism. You have a chance to recoup the costs,” says Zehnder. Curevac has done a lot of research over more than 20 years and built up a strong patent portfolio. “And we believe that the successes that Biontech and Pfizer in particular have had with their drug are based on our inventions and our patents.” According to Zehnder, who has been boss in Tübingen since April, the dispute with Biontech and Pfizer in Germany involves eight patents. In the USA, where a large part of the Covid-19 vaccine Corminaty was produced by Biontech, there are ten patents involved.
“December is very important for Curevac”
Most recently, the Düsseldorf regional court suspended four ongoing proceedings in the dispute over corona vaccine patents. A final decision on this is expected on December 28th. “If this decision goes in our favor, we could be compensated for the sales that took place during the pandemic. So not just for what income flows from now on in the future. December is very important for Curevac,” says Zehnder. Curevac filed a lawsuit against Biontech and Pfizer in Düsseldorf in July 2022 and demanded “fair compensation” for the violation of a number of its intellectual property rights that were used in the production of the Corona vaccine by Biontech and Pfizer. Zehnder does not want to name a specific amount.
The Federal Patent Court in Munich will hear the dispute between Biontech and Curevac beforehand (December 19th). The plaintiff in this case is Biontech. The Mainz-based company wants to have a Curevac patent declared invalid. Biontech welcomes the fact that the Düsseldorf Regional Court has suspended the proceedings regarding the “alleged violations of Curevac’s patents and utility models”. “This is an important signal because we are of the opinion that these patents and utility models should never have been granted by Curevac because they do not meet the requirements for this. We have therefore initiated separate proceedings to have them declared invalid.”
Out of court settlement?
According to a Biontech spokeswoman, it is not uncommon for other pharmaceutical companies to claim that a successful drug could potentially violate their intellectual property rights. Patent matters usually required the involvement of various court instances and often several court hearings to resolve all patent law issues. “We will continue to vigorously defend our innovations against all allegations of patent infringement – including in this case.”
Zehnder adds that in more than 90 percent of such patent dispute cases there is an out-of-court settlement between companies. “It’s rare for companies to wait until the end for a verdict.” Biontech only received around $100 billion from the sale of Corminaty in the three years from 2020 to 2023. “Even a small proportion of 100 billion is a very large number. But I don’t want to speculate how big it could be.” But Curevac is definitely not in a cold war with Biontech.
Many contracts concluded at high prices
Regarding Curevac’s losses, Zehnder says: “We don’t yet have a commercially approved product. That explains the majority of our losses.” There is some income, but it is still relatively modest. “In 2020, everything happened very, very quickly. We had to give up a lot of financial obligations back then, including for suppliers. We concluded a lot of contracts, at high prices at the time because there was such a hype. We will have to digest these legacy burdens from 2024 onwards “Then we will be able to use our money even more for the research and development of our candidates,” says Zehnder.
In the pharmaceutical business, “wins and losses” go hand in hand, says the Swiss. “This is also associated with financial risks. Especially for smaller companies. What speaks very much for Curevac is that the company has recovered after the hard blow. It has seen what it needs to change.” (dpa)
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