Legal Showdown: Moderna Claims Partial Victory in UK Covid Vaccine Profit Battle

In a significant legal battle over Covid-19 vaccine profits, pharmaceutical giants have achieved partial wins. Moderna Inc. emerged with a partial victory as a London judge upheld one of its two patents related to its Covid-19 vaccine, Spikevax, while declaring the other patent invalid. The ruling comes amid a heated dispute with Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech SE, who challenged the novelty of Moderna’s patents in a UK lawsuit.

Pfizer and BioNTech sought to invalidate two of Moderna’s patents, claiming a lack of novelty, while Moderna countered with a lawsuit alleging patent infringement by Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s vaccine, Comirnaty. The High Court judge concluded that Pfizer and BioNTech did infringe one of Moderna's patents, but dismissed the second patent as invalid.

Judge Richard Meade remarked on the substantial financial stakes involved and noted that both parties had improperly leveraged the Covid-19 pandemic to argue their cases. “Both sides were guilty of using the events of the Covid-19 pandemic by way of illegitimate hindsight, and I will ignore that,” he stated.

Despite the ruling, Pfizer and BioNTech plan to appeal the decision regarding the validity of the patents, with spokespeople from both companies reaffirming their stance that the patents are invalid.

Moderna reported $6.7 billion in vaccine sales for the fiscal year 2023, while Pfizer expects to generate $8 billion from its Covid-19 vaccines this year. BioNTech sold vaccines worth €3.8 billion (US$4.1 billion) last year, with projections falling to around €3.1 billion in 2024.

Moderna’s spokesperson emphasized that the defendants were not entitled to use Moderna’s patented technology for any infringing activity after March 7, 2022. The spokesperson also indicated that Moderna might appeal certain aspects of the decision.