Wilmington, October 16, 2024: GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a British pharmaceutical company, filed a lawsuit against Moderna in a US federal court in Delaware on Tuesday, alleging that the US Company had infringed upon GSK’s messenger RNA (mRNA) patent rights with its popular COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax.
The two lawsuits claim that Moderna’s lipid nanoparticles for delivering delicate mRNA into the human body violate several GSK patents about related inventions. In April, GSK brought a related case against Pfizer and BioNTech in the same court for their COVID-19 vaccine.
The current lawsuit aims to recover unidentified financial losses. A representative for Moderna stated that the business was aware of the recent lawsuit and would fight the allegations. GSK is “willing to license these on commercially reasonable terms and to ensure continued patient access,” according to a GSK representative.
The claims are part of a broader network of US court disputes involving Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna concerning patent royalties for the technology used in their vaccines. In 2022, Moderna filed a lawsuit against Pfizer. Spikevax generated $6.7 billion in income for Moderna last year.
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The sales of Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s vaccine Comirnaty brought in $11.2 billion. Last year, both vaccinations’ sales drastically decreased compared to 2022. In the recent lawsuit, GSK claimed that its patents covered the 2008-initiated mRNA technology that serves as “the foundation for Moderna’s mRNA vaccine portfolio.”
When GSK purchased a portion of Novartis’ vaccine business in 2015, it claimed to have acquired the inventions’ rights.