Moderna has sued Pfizer and BioNTech for patent infringement in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Moderna alleges that Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech copied technology Moderna developed years before the COVID-19 pandemic.

A lawsuit seeking undetermined monetary damages was filed in the US District Court in Massachusetts, with another lawsuit planned for the Regional Court of Duesseldorf in Germany.

“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 news release.

Moderna says its lawsuit is not intended to stop people from getting vaccines.

Moderna Inc was one of the first groups to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, along with the partnership of Pfizer Inc and BioNTech. 

Pfizer has issued a statement saying: “Pfizer/BioNTech has not yet fully reviewed the complaint but we are surprised by the litigation given the COVID-19 vaccine was based on BioNTech's proprietary mRNA technology and developed by both BioNTech and Pfizer”. 

“We remain confident in our intellectual property supporting the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and will vigorously defend against the allegations of the lawsuit,” a spokesperson said.

Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been around for just a decade, but came to global attention when its messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine technology enabled unprecedented speed in developing the COVID-19 vaccine.

The lawsuit is likely to take years to play out. 

More details are accessible here.