CureVac N.V. announced that it has moved to assert its intellectual property rights, accumulated over more than two decades of pioneering work in mRNA technology, which contributed to COVID-19 vaccine development. CureVac has filed a lawsuit in the German Regional Court in Düsseldorf against BioNTech SE and two of its subsidiaries, seeking fair compensation for infringement of a portfolio of CureVac’s intellectual property rights, EP 1 857 122 B1, DE 20 2015 009 961 U1,
DE 20 2021 003 575 U1 and DE 20 2015 009 974 U1, utilized in the manufacture and sale of Comirnaty®, BioNTech and Pfizer’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. CureVac does not seek an injunction nor intend to take legal action that impedes the production, sale or distribution of Comirnaty by BioNTech and its partner Pfizer.
The CureVac intellectual property portfolio protects multiple inventions that are considered essential to the design and development of BioNTech’s SARS CoV-2 mRNA vaccine, among others. These relate to the engineering of mRNA molecules, including sequence modifications to increase stability and enhance protein expression, as well as mRNA vaccine formulations specific to SARS CoV-2 vaccines.
Over the last 22 years, CureVac developed proprietary foundational technology related to mRNA design, delivery and manufacturing that materially contributed to the development of safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccines. CureVac considers the rapid development of these vaccines a tremendous achievement, with unprecedented positive impact for global public health. This achievement is based on decades of scientific research and innovation, supported by CureVac as the earliest pioneer in mRNA technology. Accordingly, CureVac’s intellectual property rights need to be acknowledged and respected in the form of a fair compensation to reinvest into the further advancement of mRNA technology and the ongoing development of new classes of life saving medicines.