Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech SE have hit back against a lawsuit brought by Moderna Inc with a countersuit.
Moderna initially sued Pfizer in August, accusing the company of infringing on three patents related to technologies that Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna claimed to have pioneered prior to the COVID-19 epidemic.
Moderna has also filed a lawsuit in Germany against Pfizer and BioNTech. Moreover, all three corporations are entangled in U.S. patent issues with other vaccine manufacturers.
A Pfizer representative stated that the business and BioNTech are confident in their intellectual property and will “vigorously defend” themselves against Moderna’s claims.
Moderna did not reply quickly to a request for comment on the application made on Monday.
In its case, Moderna sought undisclosed monetary damages for COVID-19 vaccinations sold by Pfizer since March. According to company records with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Pfizer’s vaccine generated over $26.4 billion for the New York-based corporation during the first nine months of 2022, while Moderna’s vaccine generated over $13.5 billion during the same time.
Pfizer and BioNTech stated in their petition on Monday that they independently developed their vaccine, referring to Moderna’s case as “revisionist history” and saying that Moderna’s patents “far exceed its actual contributions to the field.”
The corporations stated that Moderna neglected the contributions of their scientists and researchers at the National Institutes of Health to the development of mRNA technology.