Moderna is taking Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech to court, claiming the rival drugmakers copied its technology in developing their COVID-19 vaccine.
Moderna also outlined specific instances where the company claims Pfizer’s infringed on its patents, saying the company moved forward with a vaccine that has the same mRNA chemical modification to its vaccine as Spikevax.
Moderna scientists began developing this chemical modification that avoids provoking an undesirable immune response when mRNA is introduced into the body in 2010 and were the first to validate it in human trials in 2015.
“We believe that Pfizer and BioNTech unlawfully copied Moderna’s inventions, and they have continued to use them without permission,” Shannon Thyme Klinger, chief legal officer for Moderna, a biotechnology startup based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said Friday in a statement.
Pfizer had not yet reviewed the suit and could not yet comment on the filing, the company stated in an email. BioNTech did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Moderna and Pfizer’s two-shot vaccines both use mRNA technology to help patients fight the coronavirus. Those vaccines work by injecting a genetic code for the spike protein that coats the surface of the coronavirus.
Source: Ghanafuo.com
