Moderna is suing Pfizer and its partner Biontech for patent infringement in the development of the first corona vaccine. According to her, the two companies copied technology that Moderna developed years before the epidemic. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in Massachusetts and the Dusseldorf Regional Court in Germany, Moderna announced today. The financial scope of the lawsuit was not disclosed.
Moderna’s CEO Stephan Bansal said in a press release that “We are filing the lawsuits to protect the innovative mRNA technology that we pioneered in its development. We invested billions of dollars in its development and registered a patent during the decade preceding the corona epidemic.”
In the announcement, he also stated that “Moderna believes that Pfizer and Biotech’s corona vaccine infringes on patents Moderna filed between 2010 and 2016 that cover its basic mRNA technology. This breakthrough technology was critical to the development of Pfizer’s vaccine. Both companies copied the technology, without its permission of modernity.
Pfizer told “Reuters” that the lawsuit documents have not yet reached the company and that it cannot comment.