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Vials with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine labels are seen in this illustration picture taken March 19, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvi
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(Reuters) – Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc escalated its patent fight with Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc over their COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday, accusing the companies in Delaware federal court of infringing a newly obtained patent.
The lawsuits said the vaccines’ messenger-RNA delivery systems violate an Alnylam patent on lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology for delivering genetic material into human cells. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued the patent the same day Alnylam filed the complaints.
Pfizer, its German vaccine partner and co-defendant BioNTech SE, and Moderna did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Alnylam and its attorneys also did not respond to requests for comment.
Several biotech companies have filed patent lawsuits this year over the LNP technology in Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Alnylam first sued Pfizer and Moderna in March for allegedly infringing an LNP patent. Alnylam has said in all of the lawsuits that its technology is “essential” to the vaccines.
Pfizer denied those allegations in May and responded that Alnylam knows the vaccine is “outside the scope of what Alnylam actually invented.” Moderna told the court it was immune from Alnylam’s claims because it provided the shots for the U.S. government’s national vaccination program.
Alnylam’s Tuesday lawsuits accused New York-based Pfizer and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna of infringing a patent covering a specific class of LNPs and a method for manufacturing them.
[huge_it_slider id=”15″]The new lawsuits, like Alnylam’s other lawsuits, ask for an unspecified share from vaccine sales. Pfizer has said that it expects $32 billion in revenue from its vaccine this year, while Moderna forecast $21 billion from its shots.
The cases are Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc v. Pfizer Inc and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc v. Moderna Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, Nos. 1:22-cv-00924 and 1:22-cv-00925.
For Alnylam: William Gaede, Sarah Chapin Columbia, Ian Brooks and Ethan Townsend of McDermott Will & Emery
For Pfizer and Moderna: not available
