COVID-19: what we know about Moderna’s legal victory against Pfizer
A recent ruling by the Regional Court of Düsseldorf has determined that Pfizer and its German collaborator BioNTech must compensate Moderna, assisted by Freshfields, for utilizing its European Patent 949 (EP 949), marking a significant development in the ongoing international disputes over mRNA technology patents that form the foundation of successful COVID-19 vaccines.
According to Juve, the court has mandated that Pfizer and BioNTech – represented by Taylor Wessing and patent attorneys df-mp – disclose information regarding their implementation of EP 949, as well as revenue and profit details associated with the technology. The court decision requires the defendants to provide “reasonable compensation and damages” to Moderna, though the specific financial amount remains undetermined.
During proceedings, Pfizer and BioNTech contended that Moderna’s early-pandemic pledge not to enforce its intellectual property rights related to COVID-19 vaccines should shield them from liability. They argued that this commitment, initiated in October 2020, protected them from infringement claims until May 5, 2023.
However, Moderna’s legal team from Freshfields successfully persuaded Judge Daniel Voss and the court that this permission had been withdrawn through a March 2022 press release.
This decision follows another favorable outcome for Moderna in July, when the UK High Court determined that EP 949 was valid and had been infringed by Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine. A second patent in question – EP 565 – was deemed invalid, and Pfizer is currently appealing this verdict.
Meanwhile, in US
The companies are engaged in parallel legal battles across multiple jurisdictions, including the United States.
Coinciding with the Düsseldorf judgment on March 5, the US Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a ruling that invalidated two of Moderna’s patents. The official docket recorded that “all challenged claims were held unpatentable.”
These contested patents covered the composition and administration of mRNA vaccines “encoding any spike protein or spike protein subunit of any betacoronavirus (whether in existence or arising at any later point in time), formulated in a lipid delivery system.”
In their PTAB petitions, Pfizer and BioNTech argued that Moderna secured these patents during the pandemic with “unimaginably broad claims directed to a basic idea that was known long before the asserted priority date of 2015.”
Pfizer welcomed the PTAB decision, stating: “This decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board confirms Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s position that the two Moderna patents are invalid.”
Financial reports for the fourth quarter of 2024 revealed that Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine – once generating nearly $38 billion annually – produced global revenues of $3.38 billion, representing a 37% decrease compared to the same quarter in 2023, when revenues reached $5.36 billion.
