A doctor vaccinates a student with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
Markus Schreiber/AP Photo
Moderna is suing competing vaccine maker, Pfizer, and parent company BioNTech.
Moderna alleges that Pfizer infringed on patents for its mRNA vaccine technology.
Moderna said it developed the technology before the pandemic.
Moderna on Friday filed a lawsuit against vaccine maker, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, alleging the pharmaceutical companies copied its technology for COVID-19 vaccines.
Moderna in a news release accused Pfizer of infringing on its patents for its mRNA technology filed between 2010 and 2016.
“We believe that Pfizer and BioNTech unlawfully copied Moderna’s inventions, and they have continued to use them without permission,’ Moderna’s top lawyer, Shannon Thyme Klinger, said in the release.
Moderna said it was not seeking to remove Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine from the market and only seeking damages for activities occurring after March 8, 2022.
A Pfizer spokesperson told Insider the company had not yet been served the lawsuit and was therefore unable to comment.
The lawsuit will be filed in Massachusetts federal court as well as in Germany, Moderna said.
Moderna previously said it would not enforce patent infringements for its COVID-19 vaccine. In 2020, company President Stephen Hoge said Moderna is “quite studiously not asserting infringement.” More recently, the company said it would “never” enforce its coronavirus vaccine patents in low and middle-income countries.
Last year, the Biden Administration said it supported plans to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines.
“This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures,” United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in 2021. “The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines.”