Moderna sued Pfizer for patent infringement

American biotechnology company Moderna on Friday announced that it is suing Pfizer and BioNTech for patent infringement related to its messenger RNA vaccine against Covid-19.

“Moderna is satisfied that Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine infringe patents filed by Moderna between 2010 and 2016 covering Moderna’s basic messenger RNA technology,” the company said in a statement.

Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech put their coronavirus vaccines into production for the first time, soon after the pandemic began, thanks to this messenger RNA technology, which instructs human cells to make the proteins contained in the virus. The immune system recognizes and neutralizes it.

Until then, vaccines have relied on weakened or inactivated forms of the virus to train the body to defend itself, and the development of remedies, as well as clinical trials to verify their safety, can take years.

Four decades of research using messenger RNA technology in Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, among the world’s most widely injected vaccines, has overcome many hurdles.

“This breakthrough technology was critical to the development of Moderna’s proprietary messenger RNA vaccine, SpikeVax. Pfizer and BioNTech copied this technology without Moderna’s permission to manufacture CamirNati,” Moderna’s statement added.