Arbutus Biopharma has sued the American pharmaceutical Pfizer and his German partner BioNTech SE in a New Jersey district court, alleging that his mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 infringe five of Arbutus’s patents.
From Arbutus and together with its licensee Genevant Sciencesseek to be rewarded for the use of the lipid nanoparticle delivery technology (LNP) in Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to transport and transfer genetic material into the body. In their own lawsuit, Arbutus and Genevant point out that Pfizer/BioNTech engaged in license discussions of the technology but did not result in an agreement.
Arbutus stressed that he was not seeking to stop the drugmaker from producing or distributing the vaccines, but was seeking monetary damages, including a reasonable royalty.
This is not the first patent case in which Arbutus has been involved, last year they sued Moderna in federal court in Delaware for the same reason, that Moderna’s mRNA Covid-19 vaccine also infringes its patents. In this case, Arbutus stressed that he was not trying to prevent the drug manufacturer from producing or distributing the vaccines, but rather monetary damagesincluding a reasonable royalty.
Both Pfizer and BioNTech have already expressed their intention to defend themselves against accusations about patents. Just as they did with the Moderna case in August 2022 for allegedly infringing three patents related to their multi-million dollar Covid-19 mRNA vaccines.
In the economic section, Arbutus fell 2.6% to $2.98 on Tuesday, while Pfizer down 1.2% and US-listed BioNtech shares they fell almost 3%.
