Massachusetts pharmaceutical company sues Moderna and Pfizer for Covid vaccine copyright infringement

Two major COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers in the United States are facing lawsuits for violating another company’s copyright while developing Covid vaccines.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals filed separate lawsuits Thursday against New York City-based Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company Moderna and Pfizer.

The lawsuits allege that both giants used lipid nanoparticle technology, patented by Alnylam, in the launch of the Covid vaccine.

Pfizer and Moderna have openly opposed revoking patents on their vaccines to make their vaccines more accessible in developing countries, but now there are allegations that their vaccines are made using technology they don’t have. .

Moderna is also facing a lawsuit from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and two smaller Vancouver biotech companies.

Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines have been huge financial successes for both companies, and both have been staunch advocates of patent protection for vaccine technologies.

“Alnylam seeks fair compensation for the use of its technology, which is based on patent applications for a broad class of biodegradable lipids that were invented more than a decade ago as a result of extensive research and investment,” the company said in a statement.

“The company is proud that this work supports the rapid development of life-saving vaccines.”

Alnylam filed two lawsuits against each company, each with similar but different charges.

He’s asking for an undisclosed amount as compensation.

The company says it shared confidential information about nanoparticle technology with Moderna in 2013 and 2014.

At the time, the companies discussed a licensing agreement that was never enforced.

Moderna will use the shared information as part of vaccine development.

The COVID-19 vaccine is Moderna’s only commercial product and has made the little-known biotech company a household name.

The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the Moderna vaccine has been used 209 million times to fully vaccinate 75 million people and develop 41 million people.

The company also faces charges related to allegations that Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences, both based in Vancouver, Canada, used lipid nanoparticle technology in violation of Canadian companies’ patents.

“We want fair compensation for Moderna’s use of our proprietary technology, developed with great difficulty and expense, and without which Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine would not have been successful,” Arbutus CEO William Collier said in a note.

The company is also currently accused by the federal government of fighting an NIH lawsuit.

While the NIH said the creation of the vaccine was a collaborative project between the agency and Moderna, Moderna declined to include three NIH scientists in its patent application for the mRNA sequence that underpins the vaccine.

Despite these issues, the vaccine launch for Moderna has been very successful.

The company expects $19 billion in sales this year, and CEO Stephane Bancel said earlier this year that Americans believe his company will need another case of Covid-19 this fall.

Although Moderna is open to allowing other companies to recreate its vaccine and has promised not to implement its patent, it recently partially reversed the decision, saying it will now apply it in the developed world.

Alnylam also accuses Pfizer of using the New York-based company’s technology to develop its vaccine.

Pfizer estimates it will generate $32 billion in revenue from vaccine sales this year, and that figure will rise if a proposal to launch a fourth Covid vaccine for Americans 65 and older is approved by regulators.

The company manufactures the most widely used jab in the United States and much of the Western world. It was administered 328 million times to 124 million fully vaccinated people and 53 million fully vaccinated people.