This may hurt: English High Court set for Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech Covid battle starting today
The English part of a global dispute billion dollar legal case involving big pharma giants Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech over Covid patents, kicks off today.
Back in 2020 when Covid was spreading around the world, US pharma giant Modern’s mRNA vaccine was approved and issued for emergency use throughout the US.
The company made headline news after it said it wouldn’t enforce its patents related to Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic, in an effort to not deter other companies and researchers from making similar vaccines. It later changed that position, limiting it to vaccines manufactured for low and middle-income countries.
The Massachusetts-based pharma company issued a lawsuit against US Pfizer and German BioNTech over allegedly breaching its patents. Commenting at the time, Moderna said it believed that Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid vaccine infringed patents Moderna filed between 2010 and 2016 covering its mRNA technology.
Moderna claim suggests that it doesn’t want to remove Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s vaccines from the market, but instead, it wants compensation and damages.
This comes after the American company made more than $6bn (£5.7bn) in revenue during the pandemic. The company saw its turnover shoot up to $6.1bn (£7.6bn) for the Q1 of 2022, compared to $1.9bn (£1.5bn) for the same period in 2021.
Both Pfizer and BioNTech fired back and launched a counterclaim against Moderna claiming its patents are invalid and should be revoked.
The lawsuit has also been filed in the US, Germany and the Netherlands. Earlier this month, Pfizer won a pause on the litigation in the Massachusetts Federal Court, as the parties await a decision from the US Patent Office.
While the US is on hold, England is going full stream ahead. The trial kicks off on Tuesday and is set to last under four weeks at the Chancery Division of the High Court in London.
The hearing will be split into two parts, first will be the technical part which will look at the patents, while the second part will be looking at Moderna’s 2020 pledge.
The trial is in front of Mr Justice Meade at the Rolls Building. US giant Moderna has enlisted a team from magic circle law firm Freshfields, while, Pfizer has called on Taylor Wessing and BioNTech has instructed Powell Gilbert for their defence (and counterclaim).