Moderna says that the Cumirnaty vaccine, produced by the Pfizer-Biontech Alliance, contravenes patents filed by the biotechnology company between 2010 and 2016 and covering the fundamental technology of the messenger RNA.
Le Monde with AFP and Reuters
The American Moderna Biotechnology company announced, Friday, August 26, filed a complaint against Pfizer and its German partner Biontech for patent violation concerning their Messenger RNA vaccine against the COVVI-19. “We include this legal action to protect [technology] innovative messenger RNA that we have developed, for which we have invested billions of dollars and that we have patented during the decade that preceded the Pandemia de COVID-19, “said Stéphane Bancel, Managing Director of Moderna, in A press release from the company .
Protect innovative messenger RNA technology 2>
Moderna says that Pfizer-Biontech has copied, without authorization, the technology of MEDUSER RNA vaccines that Moderna had patented between 2010 and 2016, long before COVVI-19 emerged. Moderna adds that Pfizer-Biontech appropriated two types of intellectual property. One concerns a messenger RNA structure that Moderna claims to have started to develop in 2010; The second alleged offense concerns the coding of a complete Spike protein that Moderna teams, according to the company, developed when creating a vaccine against the coronavirus responsible for the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
This complaint, which aims to obtain indefinite financial damage, was filed before a district court of Massachusetts, in the United States, and the regional court of Düsseldorf, Germany.
Moderna and Pfizer-Biontech were the first to put their vaccines against the Sars-Cov-2 in production, very quickly after the start of the Cavid-19 pandemic, thanks to the technology of the messenger RNA which allows to order human cells to make proteins present in the virus in order to accustom the immune system to recognize and neutralize it.
Until then, vaccines were based on weakened or deactivated forms of viruses to accustom the body to defend itself, and the development of remedies, as well as clinical trials to verify their security, could last several years.
The use of messenger RNA technology in Moderna and Pfizer-Biontech vaccines, among the most injected in the world, has been the peak of four decades of research that has made it possible to overcome many obstacles .
Bivalent vaccines in reminder dose
The European Medicines Agency (AEM) will hold, the 1 er September, an extraordinary meeting devoted to Moderna and Pfizer authorization requests for a new generation of so -called “bivalent” vaccines , used in a recall dose against the COVVI-19.
These modified vaccines target both the original strain of the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus, discovered for the first time in China, and the Ba.1 subvariant. The United Kingdom is the first country to approve a bivalent vaccine, that of Moderna.
The AEM has announced a new vaccine against COVVI-19, developed by the German laboratory SK Chemicals, which relies on nanotechnologies to tackle the virus, in anticipation of a possible resurgence of the pandemic to the pandemic autumn. If it is approved, the vaccine, called Skycovion, will be the seventh approved within the European Union.