Corona vaccine: European Patent Office declares Moderna patent invalid

In the patent dispute between the two corona vaccine manufacturers BioNTech and Moderna, the European Patent Office has declared a Moderna patent invalid. The two pharmaceutical companies announced this independently of each other. Moderna announced that it would appeal the decision. The company remains convinced of the validity of the patent.

BioNTech welcomed the decision. “We believe that this and other Moderna patents do not meet the requirements for grant and should never have been granted,” said the Mainz-based company. The European Patent Office announced that it would publish the written decision on the matter in the coming weeks or months.

Moderna had relied on the patent Patent lawsuit against BioNTech and its US partner Pfizer based. Also the Tübingen competitor CureVac has filed a lawsuit against BioNTech filed because he sees his patents infringed by the company’s successful Covid-19 vaccine. BioNTech and Pfizer had rejected the allegations.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Moderna announced that it would forgo enforcing its Covid-19 patents in order to support other companies in developing their own vaccines. In March of last year, the group made its commitment more specific: In the future, this should only apply to the 92 poorer countries as part of the international vaccination alliance Gavi.