Modern faces charges of hijacking technology from two smaller biotech companies to produce it COVID-19 vaccine.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company is facing lawsuits from Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences, both based in Vancouver. Canadadue to allegations that lipid nanoparticle technology was used, which infringed the patents of Canadian companies.
Moderna’s photo is the second most widely used in the United States and is a financial success for the previously low-profile biotech brand.
Earlier this month, CEO Stefan Bansel told investors that the company expects to earn $ 19 billion in revenue in 2022 from vaccine sales alone.
This is the second lawsuit Moderna is facing for its vaccine, with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) also judging that three of its scientists have been named as co-authors of the vaccine after contributing to its development.
Moderna has been sued by Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences, both from Vancouver, Canada, over allegations that the company infringed patents when it made its vaccine against COVID-19 (photo file)
The two companies claim that the nanoparticle technology used by the Moderna vaccine belongs to them and that the company deliberately used it without even asking for a license agreement (photo file)
“We are seeking fair compensation for Moderna’s use of our patented technology, which has been developed with great effort and cost, without which Moderna’s vaccine against COVID-19 would not have been successful,” said William Collier, CEO of Moderna. Arbutus.
Arbutus and Genevant have patented a “breakthrough” lipid nanoparticle that gives the vaccine the protective coating it needs to function.
Messenger RNA or mRNA, vaccines work by providing the human body with a set of instructions for creating an artificial protein with spikes. The immune system is then activated to destroy this protein and builds Covid antibodies in the process.
Without the nanoparticle, the lawsuits say, the vaccine would not have been found so quickly.
“It is well established in the scientific literature that the most significant technological barrier to the development and implementation of drugs that use mRNA is to design a safe and effective way to deliver mRNA to human cells,” Arbutus said in a statement.
Scientists at Arbutus and Genevant have spent years developing and refining lipid nanoparticle delivery technology (LNP), which is licensed for various applications to many different third countries … with this technology, RNA can travel through the human body to its destination. . cell and across the membrane of the target cell before RNA release.
“Without this important delivery technology, RNA would be rapidly degraded in the body and ineffective.”
In the complaint, Arbutus writes that Moderna knew that it was infringing the patent when it used the nanoparticle without licensing it.
They claim that “it tried to invalidate several of the patents before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and when those efforts largely failed, Moderna simply used the patented technology without paying for it.”
Moderna made a profit of about $ 12 billion in 2021, largely fueled by the successful deployment of Covid vaccines and booster vaccines later in the year.
The company’s injection has been given 208 million times to completely vaccinate 75 million Americans and stimulate 40 million others.
There are now more vaccine products that should increase revenue data this year – and in the coming years – too.
Keeping the virus under control is likely to require regular, potentially annual booster vaccines, similar to the annual flu vaccine that many Americans already receive.
Bansel said in earnings calls earlier this month that he believed the next available photo of Covid could be available in the fall, but said the U.S. government had not yet ordered the purchase of more hits.
Moderna is also currently in Phase 2 testing for its Omicron Covid-friendly hit. It is reported that the photo is expected to be available to Americans at the end of next month.
The company is also under criticism from the federal government at the moment, as it is fighting a lawsuit from the NIH.
The NIH claims that the creation of the vaccine is a joint project between the agency and Moderna, while Moderna refused to include three NIH scientists in its patent application for the mRNA sequence that forms the basis of the vaccine.
If the NIH wins, the agency will be able to collect fees from vaccine sales and even license it to smaller, less developed nations that have had trouble buying the vaccine from companies like Moderna.
This would hurt Moderna’s market share – it is now competing with generic drugs, not just Pfizer and a few others in the international vaccine market – while being a boon to much of the developed world.