Patent infringement: Pfizer convinces US Patent Office to cancel two Moderna coronavirus vaccine patents
Written By : Ruchika Sharma
Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli
Published On 2025-03-06 12:26 GMT | Update On 2025-03-06 12:26 GMT
Pfizer and BioNTech have convinced a U.S. Patent Office tribunal that two patents Moderna accused Pfizer-BioNtech of infringing were invalid. The companies have secured a victory in a round in their legal dispute with Moderna over COVID-19 vaccine patents.
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board sided with Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, determining that Moderna’s patents were invalid due to "prior art" that disclosed the inventions before Moderna patented them.
The decision, which is currently sealed, can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Reuters reported.
A Moderna spokesperson said the company disagrees with the decision and is evaluating its appeal options. Pfizer and BioNTech said in company statements that the decision confirms their position that the two Moderna patents are invalid.
Defendants frequently turn to the board, which hears challenges to patent validity, as an alternative path to fend off patent infringement claims. Moderna sued Pfizer and BioNTech in federal court in Massachusetts in 2022 for allegedly infringing its patents in a lawsuit that is still ongoing
Pfizer and BioNTech have separately challenged the validity of Moderna's patents in the court case, which also involves an additional patent not covered by Wednesday's decision.
Pfizer and its German partner told the board in 2023 that the Moderna patents were "unimaginably broad" and covered a "basic idea that was known long before" their invention date of 2015.
They argued that scientists discovered mRNA could be used for vaccines as early as 1990, and that Moderna's patents were invalid because their innovations were noted in publications from as early as 2004.
Moderna responded that it was first to discover the patented technology and that its mRNA inventions "changed fundamental assumptions in pandemic preparedness.
Pfizer and BioNTech earned more than $3.3 billion in revenue from global sales of their vaccine Comirnaty last year, while Moderna earned $3.2 billion from its vaccine Spikevax, according to company reports. Sales of both vaccines declined significantly between 2023 and 2024.
A German court separately ruled earlier Wednesday that Pfizer and BioNTech infringed a European Moderna patent and owed Moderna an amount of damages yet to be determined.
The cases are BioNTech SE v. ModernaTX Inc, Patent Trial and Appeal Board, Nos. IPR2023-01358 and IPR2023-01359.
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