Moderna said it is suing Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for patent infringement in the development of the first COVID-19 vaccine.
The US drug company is alleging that mRNA technology it developed before the pandemic was copied.
The lawsuit, which is seeking unspecified financial damages, was filed in the US and Germany.
Pfizer said the company had not yet received the legal documents and were unable to comment at this time.
In a statement, Moderna said Pfizer/BioNTech copied two types of its intellectual property. One involved an mRNA structure that Moderna says its scientists began developing in 2010 and were the first to validate in human trials in 2015.
The second alleged infringement involves the coding of the spike protein on the outside of the virus itself.
“We are filing these lawsuits to protect the innovative mRNA technology platform that we pioneered, invested billions of dollars in creating, and patented during the decade preceding the COVID-19 pandemic,” Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel said in a statement.
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