GSK Sues Pfizer and BioNTech Over Alleged COVID-19 Patent Infringement
GSK on Thursday sued Pfizer and BioNTech, alleging that the pharma partners have infringed patents related to the mRNA technology of their COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty, according to Reuters.
In its complaint, filed with the U.S. District Court of Delaware, GSK claims Pfizer and BioNTech made use of “seminal” mRNA research from Christian Mandl, who in 2008—with a team of researchers—successfully addressed long-standing hurdles regarding the use of mRNA molecules as vaccines.
“The Mandl team successfully overcame the many challenges and discovered the novel lipid and mRNA formulations and methods for their use to raise an immune response against immunogens,” GSK’s filing noted, adding that the company obtained exclusive rights to the Mandl research in 2015, when it bought a “substantial portion” of Novartis’ vaccines unit.
Despite its ownership, GSK alleges that Pfizer and BioNTech knowingly used the Mandl research to develop Comirnaty. BioNTech has cited the work of Mandl’s team in its patent applications, while Pfizer has likewise pointed to the Mandl research in at least one of its presentations.