Moderna sues Pfizer, BioNTech alleging patent infringement over Covid vaccine
Moderna said Friday that it is suing Pfizer and BioNTech, alleging that the two companies copied Moderna's technology to make its Covid vaccine Comirnaty. "We believe that Pfizer and BioNTech unlawfully copied Moderna's inventions, and they have continued to use them without permission," Moderna Chief Legal Officer Shannon Thyme Klinger said in a statement. The patent infringement lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and the Regional Court of Düsseldorf in Germany, according to a news release. Moderna said it filed patents between 2010 and 2016 for its mRNA technology, which was critical in the company's creation of its own Covid vaccine. The company alleges that Pfizer and BioNTech then copied that same technology for Comirnaty. "We are filing these lawsuits to protect the innovative mRNA technology platform that we pioneered, invested billions of dollars in creating, and patented during the decade preceding the CO...