A British court issued a mixed decision on Tuesday in the dispute between the American company Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech alliance regarding the patents for the messenger RNA technology used in the manufacture of their anti-COVID-19 vaccines, reports AFP.
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The High Court of Justice in London validated one of Moderna’s patents, EP949, but invalidated another (EP565), according to the text of Tuesday’s decision.
Moderna has already indicated that it is studying the possibility of appealing against part of this decision.
The messenger RNA technology was crucial for the development of the vaccines produced by Moderna and the American-German alliance Pfizer-BioNTech against COVID-19.
The British section of this litigation, which began in 2022 in the United States and Germany and then expanded to several countries, opened in April in London.
Moderna accused the opposing party of infringing European patents associated with its vaccine against the novel coronavirus.
However, the American giant Pfizer and the German company BioNTech considered that the two patents were not valid.
In a second lawsuit filed in the United Kingdom, Pfizer and BioNTech cited commitments Moderna made during the pandemic not to sue labs that would use its vaccine technology to jointly fight the pandemic.
Moderna responded that it made that commitment during the most acute phase of the pandemic, but fined it in March 2022, when the epidemic began to subside.
“We are pleased that the High Court of Justice in the United Kingdom recognized Moderna’s scientific innovation, confirming the validity of the EP949 patent and the fact that the defendants were not authorized to use Moderna’s patented technology after March 7, 2022”the representatives of the Moderna company reacted.
“We are contesting other aspects of the decision and will decide if we want to appeal”they added.
The American company also said it has made a commitment not to sue manufacturers using its technology for COVID-19 vaccines in developing countries, but not in rich countries.
According to Moderna representatives, the current disputes therefore concern rich countries such as the United States and several European countries, such as Belgium.
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna were among the first companies in the world, along with the British manufacturer AstraZeneca, to launch vaccines against the new coronavirus on the market, a medical success that brought them billions of dollars in revenue.
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna used the avant-garde messenger RNA technology, while the British company AstraZeneca opted for a more classic formula.
