Pfizer and BioNTech filed a countersuit against Moderna Dec. 5 over their rival COVID-19 vaccines made from the same mRNA technology, court documents show.
Moderna filed suit against Pfizer in late August and accused the drugmaker of infringing on patents and copying its mRNA technology "without ever requesting a license."
About three months later, Pfizer submitted an 81-page document in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts accusing the other pharmaceutical company of writing a "revisionist history not based on fact."
"Moderna will fail in its attempt to stretch already overbroad (and, as contended herein, invalid) patents to try to claim credit for others' work," Pfizer said in its countersuit.
Moderna did not immediately respond to Becker's request for comment.
Both companies have made billions of dollars from their respective COVID-19 vaccines, but Pfizer's vaccines have been administered more than 415 million times while Moderna follows behind with nearly 260 million administered doses, according to CDC data.
The timing of these lawsuits is key: COVID-19 funds are dwindling, and drugmakers that sell COVID-19 vaccines and treatments are preparing to commercially sell their products.
After Moderna filed the patent infringement suit, a Pfizer spokesperson told Becker's the company "was surprised by the litigation given the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was based on BioNTech's proprietary mRNA technology and developed by both BioNTech and Pfizer."
In the latest court filing document, Pfizer and BioNTech argue that its COVID-19 vaccines use a different mRNA sequence and different lipid nanoparticles. Pfizer also said Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania scientists Katalin Karikó, PhD, and Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, filed patents for the technology six years before Moderna did.
In October 2020, Moderna said that "while the pandemic continues, Moderna will not enforce our COVID-19 related patents against those making vaccines intended to combat the pandemic," according to its lawsuit.
Pfizer quoted this statement in its countersuit, highlighted that Moderna has made "more than $30 billion from COVID-19 vaccine sales" since the start of the pandemic — Pfizer is projected to make $34 billion just in 2022 — and said its competitor "seeks to leverage fundamental research done by others for more financial gain."
Moderna and Pfizer have asked for an undisclosed amount of monetary damages in their respective lawsuits, and Pfizer is also seeking an official judgment that it did not infringe on any of Moderna's patents.