The American biotechnology company, Moderna, has accused its German competitor, BioNTech, and its partner during the Corona pandemic, the giant pharmaceutical company Pfizer, of violating patents in the development of vaccines against the Corona virus.

Yesterday, Friday, the American Laboratory of Moderna launched a legal battle against Pfizer and Biotech, accusing them of violating patents on technologies essential to the vaccine against Covid-19, using the "mRNA" technology.

"Moderna is convinced that the Kommernati vaccine from Pfizer and Biotech against Covid-19 infringes patents that Moderna filed between 2010 and 2016," a statement from the company said.

Moderna has indicated that it intends to use messenger RNA technology to develop treatments against influenza, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular diseases and cancers.

A revolution in the world of vaccines

After the outbreak of the pandemic, Moderna and Pfizer (a collaborator with Biontech) were the first to start producing vaccines against the Corona virus with messenger RNA technology that allows human cells to generate proteins present in the virus, so that the immune system gets used to recognizing and suppressing this virus.

Before that, vaccines were based on viral doses whose effect was weakened or nullified, thanks to which the body gets used to dealing with the virus.

The development of treatments that required clinical trials to verify their safety often took several years.

The use of messenger RNA technology in Moderna and Pfizer-Biontech vaccines in the world was the culmination of 4 decades of research that allowed to overcome several obstacles.

Great hopes are placed on this technology, which allows wide flexibility and the ability to stimulate the production of antigens in the body.

Moderna said she filed a complaint in Massachusetts in the United States and Dusseldorf in Germany.

It may take several years to resolve this judicial dispute.

And Pfizer-Biontech revealed - in a letter to Agence France-Presse - that it had not yet seen the full content of the complaint.

However, the two groups did not hide their surprise at these developments, given that the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine against Covid-19 "is based on the exclusive messenger RNA technology of Biontech, which was developed in the framework of a collaboration between Biontech and Pfizer."

Both groups expressed their willingness to "viciously" defend their interests in the face of Moderna's allegations.

Moderna itself pursues

This isn't the first patent infringement lawsuit filed over new mRNA technology;

Moderna's group is affiliated with two small biotech companies, Arbutus Biopharma Corporation and Genevent Sciences.

Biontech affects a complaint filed in Germany by the German company CureVac, to which Pfizer-Biontech responded with a lawsuit in the United States.

“We are launching these prosecutions to protect our innovative mRNA technology platform, in which we have invested and patented billions of dollars in the decade leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Stefan Bancel, general manager of Moderna Laboratories, said in the statement.

Moderna clarified that since October 2020, it has committed itself not to launching prosecutions related to intellectual property as long as the pandemic continues, but it believes that conditions have changed.

The company is not requesting that the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine be withdrawn from the market, but rather is asking for financial compensation for the vaccines sold since March only.

Pfizer expects to generate $32 billion from sales of its COVID-19 vaccine from the beginning of 2022 to its last.

Moderna explained that the patents that are the subject of prosecutions against Pfizer and Biontech were not developed when they were cooperating with the US Research Agency to accelerate work to contain the spread of Covid-19.