GSK: Pfizer, BioNTech ‘reaped billions of dollars’ from stealing COVID-19 patents
New claim from GlaxoSmithKline is latest in litany of lawsuits against rivals | US lawsuit, potentially worth “billions of dollars”, is filed as UK trial kicks off between Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has entered the fray of COVID-19 vaccine lawsuits with a lawsuit that could cost Pfizer and BioNTech “billions of dollars”.
The mammoth biopharma firm filed a lawsuit yesterday, April 25, claiming that fellow UK firm Pfizer and Germany-based BioNTech infringed five patents related to its “revolutionary” messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in their blockbuster COVID-19 vaccines.
GSK alleges that it began to develop mRNA vaccines in 2008—“more than a decade before” the SARS-CoV-2 disease emerged in 2019—and that the defendants’ Comirnaty vaccine infringe its patent rights.
Scientists and researchers working under the leadership of vaccinologist Christian Mandl, and Andrew Geall, the named inventor of the patents-in-suit, “discovered formulations comprising lipids and mRNA molecules encoding a viral immunogen that provide protection from viral infection”, said GSK in the 65-page complaint.
According to the District of Delaware suit, the team filed patent applications in 2010 for the five patents in suit which describe technology for delivering fragile mRNA into human cells (US patent numbers 11,638,693; 11,638,694; 11,666,534; 11,766,401; and 11,786,467.
GSK argues that the “foundation of defendants’ technical and financial success with COVID-19 vaccines is the technology” of its patented inventions.
“Defendants have repeatedly touted the speed at which they produced their original COVID-19 vaccine and were later able to modify it to address new viral strains, but have consistently failed to acknowledge how they applied [its] revolutionary platform to do so.”
The biopharma firm added that the defendants “have reaped billions of dollars in revenue from infringing GSK’s patents-in-suit and continue to benefit, without ever obtaining a licence.”
mRNA lawsuits pile up
The complaint adds to the myriad high-stakes lawsuits in US and EU courts involving Pfizer and BioNTech, first brought by Moderna in August 2022.
Moderna claims that Pfizer and BioNTech infringed its patents related to mRNA innovations with their Comirnaty vaccine.
But in November, the US biotech firm suffered a setback after the European Patent Office (EPO) declared an mRNA patent held by the firm to be invalid.
And earlier this month, the defendants successfully paused the suit in the US until the resolution of two inter partes review (IPR) proceedings initiated by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).
In their appeal, they argued that Moderna had rewritten history to “eliminate the contributions of many brilliant and dedicated scientists and place itself in the single, starring role”.
The legal battle in the UK saw a trial kicked off at the High Court on Tuesday, April 23, after Pfizer and BioNTech sued Moderna in September 2022, seeking to revoke Moderna's mRNA technology.
Representing GSK is a large team from Desmarais, including John Desmarais, Todd Kraus, Amanda Potter, Karl Mullen and Alexander Walker; and Kelly Farnan and Sara Metzler at Richards, Layton & Finger.
Counsel for Pfizer and BioNTech have not yet been named.
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