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6 January 2022BiotechnologyMuireann Bolger

Allele drops COVID-19 protein suit against Pfizer, BioNTech

Biotech Allele has dropped its lawsuit accusing Pfizer and BioNTech of infringing technology covering a fluorescent protein used in COVID-19 vaccines.

The companies filed a joint motion to dismiss the action and all claims, counterclaims, and defences by and between the parties with prejudice at the US District Court for the Southern District of California on Tuesday, January 4.

The dispute arose in October 2020 when Allele filed a complaint in San Diego alleging that the companies did not have permission to use its mNeonGreen protein to produce its BNT162 vaccine. It also sought royalties for the use of the protein in treatments to combat COVID-19.

Allele held that it owned the patent, US number 10,221,221, covering the protein, which the US Patent and Trademark Office issued in 2019.

During 2020, the biotech also filed a separate federal lawsuit in New York against Regeneron accusing the company of using the same protein without its authorisation in an “antibody cocktail” used to treat the COVID-19 symptoms of the then US President Donald Trump.

According to Allele, mNeonGreen is an artificial fluorescent that it painstakingly developed, which has emerged as the world’s brightest monomeric fluorescent protein.

It further held that mNeonGreen had become the gold standard for  effective COVID-19 vaccine testing, and that Pfizer and BioNTech had taken the protein for unauthorised commercial testing and development.

“Only through use of mNeonGreen were the defendants able to develop and test the BNT162 vaccine candidate at lightspeed making them first to market, earning them an immediate $445 million in grants and over $4 billion in sales of the vaccine to date.

“All of this was simply the downstream benefit that defendants enjoyed (and presumably the world will enjoy from the vaccine) from their choice to use Allele’s mNeonGreen,” said the complaint.

But this week, the San Diego court dismissed the entire action with prejudice.

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Generics
17 February 2022   Pfizer has sued Teva Pharmaceuticals, alleging that the Israeli pharma company is planning on releasing a generic of Pfizer’s Xeljanz XR arthritis treatment before the branded drug’s key patent expires.
Big Pharma
7 July 2022   Germany-based CureVac has accused BioNTech of infringing four patents related to messenger ribonucleic acid technology.