Moderna-Pfizer spat: ‘Friendly fire’ that sets a worrying precedent, say experts

As Moderna locks horns with Pfizer in an alleged patent infringement case involving their Covid-19 vaccine, experts see this as “friendly fire” that, in fact, illustrates their point that patents are about controlling technology, and not just rewarding the innovator.

Late last week, Moderna said it was filing patent infringement lawsuits against Pfizer and BioNTech in the US and Germany.

“Moderna believes that Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty infringes patents Moderna filed between 2010 and 2016 covering Moderna's foundational mRNA technology. This ground breaking technology was critical to the development of Moderna's own mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, Spikevax. Pfizer and BioNTech copied this technology, without Moderna's permission, to make Comirnaty,” the American biotech company said.

Pfizer was reportedly “surprised” by the allegation and has stood by its technology and so has its German partner BioNTech who said their technology was “original” and vowed to “vigorously” defend it against all allegations of patent infringement.

The public spat over patents involving Covid-19 vaccines comes against the backdrop of global calls for a temporary waiver on intellectual property (IP) on products and technologies used to tackle the coronavirus—a call that had not gone down well with innovator companies.

“This is a friendly fire between two innovator companies, both were highly successful with their products, both made a lot of money and yet they fight. This proves that patents are all about controlling the technology and not just about rewarding innovation,” observes KM Gopakumar, an IP expert with The Third World Network.

“Besides, he adds, these companies received funds or support in some form from the government—either for development or to procure large quantities of their stock,” he said, adding that this battle was essentially over “government property”.

On the development, Maaza Seyoum, global south convenor of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said, “Civil society groups have long feared that Moderna would enforce its broad patents to derail programs aimed at sharing mRNA technology, like the World Health Organization’s technology transfer hub in South Africa. If Moderna is willing to sue another US pharmaceutical giant with deep pockets, then governments must step in to protect vaccine efforts in lower-income countries from cases like this.”

Echoing the thoughts on public funding, Seyoum said, “These vaccines were developed with an unprecedented injection of public funding, building on decades of public research....They aren’t Moderna’s or Pfizer’s; they are the people’s vaccines.”

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