Moderna, Pfizer face escalating COVID vaccine patent suits

New lawsuit comes months after the pair were accused of infringing lipid nanoparticle technology.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has targeted Pfizer and Moderna in another round of patent suits over their COVID-19 vaccines.

The latest suits—filed at the US District Court for the District of Delaware on Tuesday, July 12—come just months after Alnylam accused the pair of infringing a patent for its lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology through the development of their COVID-19 vaccines.

Pfizer, in May, hit back at the claims, alleging that Alnylam’s conduct in seeking to licence and enforce the patent against “outside the scope of the claims of the patent-in-suit, and outside the scope of what Alnylam actually invented, is an attempt to seek an improper economic benefit”.

Separately, Moderna claimed that it was immune from the suit as it supplied the vaccines for the US government effort, so that Alnylam needed to sue the government directly.

In its latest suits, Alnylam has accused Pfizer (and its German partner BioNTech) and Moderna of infringing US patent number 11,382,979, which relates to Alnylam’s LNP technology for delivering genetic material into human cells.

The suits were filed the same day that the US Patent and Trademark Office issued the ‘979 patent, entitled “Biodegradable lipids for the delivery of active agents”.

According to the suits, the patented LNP technology is “essential to the efficacy and safety of” Pfizer’s and Moderna’s’ COVID-19 vaccines.

Alnylam is seeking an unspecified amount of royalties from the sales of the vaccines but is not seeking an injunction.

In a statement given to LSIPR, Alnylam said: “Alnylam is proud that our patented biodegradable lipid technology [1] is foundational to the life-saving COVID-19 vaccines. It is our fiduciary duty to shareholders to seek fair compensation for the use of our technology.

"We are not seeking an injunction, and do not plan to take action that impedes production, sale, or distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines in the US or anyplace in the world.”

Just one week ago, Pfizer’s partner BioNTech was accused of infringing four patents related to messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology by Germany-based CureVac.

mRNA technology contributed to COVID-19 vaccine development and, according to CureVac, its own IP portfolio protects multiple inventions that are “considered essential to the design and development of BioNTech’s SARS CoV-2 mRNA vaccine, among others”.

BioNTech has denied the allegations, stating that its work was original and it would vigorously defend it against all allegations of patent infringement.

[1] Certain embodiments of which were granted as United States Patent No. 1,246,933 (‘933 Patent).

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