Bayer, through its subsidiary Monsanto, sued Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna in federal court in Delaware on Tuesday for allegedly improperly using their messenger RNA technology in the manufacture of their vaccines, a Bayer spokesperson confirmed.
The patent infringement lawsuits allege that the companies copied a technology developed by Monsanto in the 1980s to boost messenger RNA in crops to stabilize the genetic material used in their vaccines. Bayer separately filed a similar lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson in federal court in New Jersey, arguing that a DNA-based process used by the company to make its vaccines infringed the patent.
A Moderna spokesperson said the company is aware of the lawsuit and will defend itself. Spokespeople for Pfizer, BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bayer’s allegations add to a web of patent litigation related to the successful Covid-19 vaccines, including an ongoing lawsuit filed by Moderna against Pfizer in 2022.
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Bayer was not involved in the development of the Covid-19 vaccines and does not manufacture or sell any version of them. The company has asked the courts for an unspecified amount of financial compensation and said it is not seeking to prevent companies from continuing to manufacture its vaccines.
Pfizer and BioNTech earned more than $3.3 billion in revenue from global sales of their Comirnaty vaccine in 2024, while Moderna earned $3.2 billion for its Spikevax vaccine, the companies report, a fraction of their sales at the height of the pandemic.
Johnson & Johnson stopped selling its Covid-19 vaccine in the United States in 2023.
According to Bayer’s lawsuits, Monsanto scientists pioneered a technology in the 1980s to reduce messenger RNA instability and create more pest-resistant crops. Bayer alleged that Pfizer and Moderna used technology to improve the stability of messenger RNA that infringes one of its patents.
With information from Reuters
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