Northwestern sues Moderna for patent infringement over COVID-19 vaccines

Oct 16 (Reuters) - Moderna (MRNA.O) was hit with a new patent lawsuit on Wednesday in Delaware federal court from Northwestern University, which accused the company of misusing the school’s innovations to develop its blockbuster COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax.

The lawsuit said Moderna uses Northwestern-developed lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology without a license in Spikevax shots to transport fragile messenger RNA into the human body.

A Moderna spokesperson said the company was aware of the lawsuit and will defend itself against the claims. Attorneys and spokespeople for Northwestern did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit adds to a web of U.S. court cases involving Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna over patent royalties for technology used in their COVID vaccines, including one [USN:L2N3GL23C TEXT:“brought by Moderna against Pfizer”] in 2022. British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline [USN:L1N3LR0LZ TEXT:“sued Moderna”] in the same Delaware court on Tuesday for allegedly misusing GSK’s LNP technology in its COVID-19 and RSV shots.

Evanston, Illinois-based Northwestern said its researchers pioneered the use of LNPs to deliver mRNA into human cells in 2009 and 2010. The university’s lawsuit said the LNPs in Moderna’s Spikevax work in the same way as its patented technology.

The school’s complaint said Moderna could not have made its “rapid progress” in developing the vaccine “without appropriating the technological breakthroughs of prior researchers, including those at Northwestern.”

Northwestern asked the court for an unspecified amount of monetary damages from Moderna’s alleged infringement including royalties. Moderna earned $6.7 billion in revenue from Spikevax last year.

The case is Northwestern University v. Moderna Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 1:24-cv-01151.