Biopharmaceutical company CureVac has filed a lawsuit against BioNTech SE and two of its subsidiaries in relation to an alleged infringement of the company’s portfolio used in the manufacture and sale of the Comirnaty Covid-19 vaccine.
CureVac has filed the lawsuit in the German Regional Court in Düsseldorf in a move it describes as asserting its intellectual property rights which is based on over two decades research in mRNA technology which helped with the development of Covid-19 vaccines.
CureVac is now seeking fair compensation for the infringement of its IP which was utilised in the manufacture and sale of BioNTech and Pfizer’s mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, Comirnaty.
The company says it does not seek an injunction or intends to take legal action that will affect the production, sale and distribution of the BioNTech and Pfizer’s Covid-19.
Whilst details about the lawsuit are limited, it’s basis in is CureVac’s IP portfolio which the company says protects multiple inventions that are considered essential to the design and development of BioNTech’s SARS CoV-2 mRNA vaccine, among others.
In particular, this has to do with the engineering of mRNA molecules, including sequence modifications to increase stability and enhance protein expression, as well as mRNA vaccine formulations specific to SARS CoV-2 vaccines.
CureVac states its “intellectual property rights need to be acknowledged and respected in the form of a fair compensation to reinvest into the further advancement of mRNA technology and the ongoing development of new classes of life saving medicines.”
BioNTech has yet to respond to the lawsuit.
