A court battle of 104 billion dollars has started between the 2 largest companies producing Covid vaccines in the world.
Moderna has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Pfizer and BioNTech, claiming that the companies copied its mRNA technology.
Moderna and Pfizer’s covid vaccines use mRNA technology that emerged during the corona pandemic.
Moderna claims rival companies copied its technology, which it patented between 2010 and 2016.
Moderna has demanded compensation from Pfizer and BioNTech for damages caused by the technology but has not asked to take the vaccine off the market.
Pfizer and BioNTech project vaccine sales of $104 billion by the end of 2022, with the potential for further growth upon the introduction of a vaccine specific to Omicron.
In contrast, Moderna vaccine revenue is expected to be $37 billion in 2021 and 2022.
In 2020, due to the rise in Covid cases and deaths, Moderna had decided not to take action on patent rights during the introduction of vaccines, but in March it changed its policy, promising to take action in this regard. They will not harm low and middle-income countries.
Moderna CEO Stephen Bancel said in a statement that we are filing these lawsuits to protect the mRNA technology platform that we are the founders of and have spent billions of dollars developing.
“We started laying the foundation for this platform in 2010 while patenting our work in 2015 and 2016, which enabled us to deliver a safe and highly effective Covid-19 vaccine in record time,” he said.
Pfizer told the Daily Mail that the summons in relation to the case has not yet been issued and the allegations cannot be discussed.
BioNTech has not yet responded to this.
The Pfizer vaccine is currently available in 164 countries, while the Moderna vaccine is approved for use in 109 countries.