Moderna Sues Pfizer-BioNTech Over COVID-19 Vaccine Patents

CAMBRIDGE, MA — The two biggest names in COVID-19 vaccines are going to war.

Cambridge-based Moderna said Friday it will sue German rivals Pfizer and BioNTech over alleged patent violations. Moderna says Pfizer used the company's mRNA technology to develop and market its COVID-19 shot.

"This foundational platform, which we began building in 2010, along with our patented work on coronaviruses in 2015 and 2016, enabled us to produce a safe and highly effective COVID-19 vaccine in record time after the pandemic struck," Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a news release.

The company said it does not intend to enforce patents on its COVID-19 products as the pandemic continues. But Moderna said it expected rival companies to respect patents.

"When COVID-19 emerged, neither Pfizer nor BioNTech had Moderna's level of experience with developing mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases, and they knowingly followed Moderna's lead in developing their own vaccine," a news release said.

The company charged that Pfizer and BioNTech tested four COVID-19 vaccines, including ones completely different from the Moderna vaccines. But the one brought to market was chemically identical to Moderna's, the company said.

Vaccines that use mRNA technology work by introducing small pieces of virus to the immune system, allowing the body to create a defense. A key piece of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine stops the body from attacking the virus before the body can build an immune response. The company says Pfizer-BioNTech copied that part of the vaccine, and a separate piece of technology that allows the body to defend against the COVID-19 virus spike protein.

The Pfizer and Moderna shots were the first two approved by U.S. drug regulators in late 2020. The shots hit the market in early 2021, and have been the go-to shots ever since.