Pfizer used technologies developed by another company in its COVID-19 vaccine, infringing on patents, according to a new lawsuit.
“When the world was thrust into a devastating pandemic and urgently needed LNP technologies to deliver an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine to cells in the body, the necessary LNP technologies had, fortunately, already been invented by Arbutus’s scientists years before and stood ready for use. Defendants could not have accomplished the feat of creating and manufacturing a vaccine at a speed unprecedented in the history of medicine but for their use of Plaintiffs’ existing and proven LNP technologies,” the suit reads.
“Yet Defendants never paid Plaintiffs to use those technologies. And Defendants continue to knowingly use the technologies to make and sell the vaccine, amassing tens of billions of dollars in revenues. Plaintiffs have thus filed this case to obtain fair compensation for their inventions, without which the vaccine would not exist.”
Arbutus is joined by Genevant Sciences, which licenses the technologies patented by Arbutus.
Awareness, Attempt to Avoid Lawsuit
Defendants were aware of the patents, the suit asserts, pointing to how BioNTech paid in 2018 to use the lipid nanoparticle technology for cancer and liver disease treatments. Pfizer reviewed a copy of that license agreement as part of its research before reaching a contract with BioNTech on a different project and as part of the research conducted before collaborating with BioNTech on the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Arbutus and Genevant.The companies say they tried to avoid going to court by proposing to Pfizer and BioNTech a licensing agreement for the nanoparticle technology.
Arbutus and Genevant notified Pfizer and BioNTech in November 2020, before the vaccine was authorized by any country, that selling or offering to sell the vaccine may infringe on one or more patents and “offered to discuss the terms of a collaboration and/or license to further the parties’ goal of ending the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the suit.
“The letter emphasized that Plaintiffs’ priority was for COVID-19 to be eradicated and assured that ‘we do not intend to file a case asserting patent infringement in the near future’ to ensure vaccine development efforts were in no way impacted,” the companies stated.
Pfizer responded by stating that it would “reach out in due course” but didn’t follow up, prompting Genevant to circle back six months later.
With no word coming, Arbutus and Genevant sent a fresh notification of possible patent infringement on Oct. 12, 2021, and another letter last year expanding the infringement claims.
But Pfizer and BioNTech have refused to license the technology and haven’t paid any money to Arbutus or Genevant, according to the suit. It also states that Pfizer and BioNTech have refused to provide evidence that they didn’t infringe on the patents, including not providing any product samples.
“During the pandemic, there was an urgent need for LNP technologies to deliver mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines to cells in the human body. We believe that Pfizer and BioNTech could not have created and manufactured effective vaccines at such an unprecedented speed without the existing, proven, and patented LNP technologies owned by Arbutus and licensed to Genevant,” William Collier, president and CEO of Arbutus, said in a statement.
“Therefore, we are pursuing legal action against both Pfizer and BioNTech for the unlicensed use of our patented technologies in their COVID-19 vaccines.”
Other Cases
Pfizer and Moderna are both already facing patent infringement cases over their COVID-19 vaccines.CureVac, another company, sued BioNTech over allegedly using CureVac’s technology without compensation, triggering a suit from Pfizer and BioNTech against CureVac. Pfizer and BioNTech stated that CureVac was trying to profit from their vaccine after the company’s bid to develop its own COVID-19 vaccine failed.
