Moderna Wins UK Patent Battle In opposition to Pfizer and BioNTech

The U.Okay. Courtroom of Appeals has dominated in Moderna’s favor in a patent dispute between the vaccine maker and its chief competitor, Pfizer and its associate BioNTech.

The choice confirms a ruling courting to July 2024 that Moderna’s EP’949 patent is legitimate, and that Pfizer/BioNTech’s Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine infringes upon it.

Moderna introduced the ruling in a press launch early Friday morning and confirmed it through the firm’s second-quarter earnings name hours later.

“You might have seen that within the final couple of hours, the U.Okay. Courtroom of Attraction issued its resolution,” Moderna’s CEO Stéphane Bancel mentioned on the decision. “The courtroom has determined to affirm the Excessive Courtroom discovering that Moderna’s EP’949 patent is legitimate and infringed by Pfizer and BioNTech. Moderna will proceed to pursue and implement its patent rights globally to guard its aggressive mRNA expertise.”

The EP’949 patent covers modifications made to the mRNA utilized in COVID-19 vaccines. That modification replaces the uracil bases in mRNA with N1-methyl-pseudouridine, a modified model of the bottom that stabilizes the molecule and stimulates a powerful immune response.

Early within the COVID-19 pandemic, in October 2020, Moderna mentioned that it will not implement its COVID-19–associated patents. However in March 2022, the biotech up to date this pledge, saying it will implement its patents besides in 92 low- or middle-income international locations.

The U.Okay. case dates again to August 2022, when Moderna sued Pfizer and BioNTech within the U.S. and Germany (the place BioNTech is predicated), in addition to the Netherlands, Belgium and Eire, for infringement of the EP’949 patent. Moderna’s criticism mentioned it was entitled to damages referring to gross sales courting again to March 2022. In September 2022, Pfizer shot again in U.Okay. courts, asking for the patent to be revoked there, insisting that its personal patents had been infringed.

In July 2024, an preliminary ruling got here down within the U.Okay. that declared certainly one of Moderna’s patents, EP’565, which lined a “betacoronavirus mRNA-LNP vaccine” invalid. Nonetheless, it mentioned that EP’949, the patent on modified uracils, was legitimate. The courtroom gave Pfizer the choice to attraction the choice, which it did.

The circumstances throughout numerous international locations have come to different conclusions. In March, the Düsseldorf Regional Courtroom dominated that Moderna’s patents had been legitimate and ordered Pfizer and BioNTech to pay damages. A number of weeks later, the U.S. Patent Trial and Attraction Board dominated that three different Moderna patents round mRNA expertise tried to patent “apparent” advances and had been due to this fact invalid.