The U.S. government should immediately, as a matter off act, face a patent lawsuit regarding COVID-19 vaccines, not vaccine maker Moderna Inc (MRNA.O), the Department of Justice told a Delaware federal court on the Tuesday of this month. The Justice Department’s court filing said the United States should be without any doubt, responsible and liable for any infringement of Arbutus Biopharma Corp (ABUS.O) and Genevant Sciences GmbH’s patents that took place under Moderna’s contract in order to provide shots for the government’s nationwide vaccination effort.
Moderna had made the same argument even last year during a very unsuccessful bid which was made in order to win an early dismissal of the lawsuit. Genevant however declined to comment anything at all on the filing. Representatives for Moderna, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond either when it came to requests for comments, reportedly on Wednesday. Warminster Township, the Pennsylvania-based Arbutus and Genevant — a peculiarly joint venture between Arbutus and Roivant Sciences Ltd (ROIV.O) — has apparently sued Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna last year for royalties on its multi-billion-dollar COVID vaccines actually.
Both Moderna and Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) have been the target of multiple patent lawsuits over their COVID vaccines, including a lawsuit brought by Moderna against Pfizer in August. Moderna had apparently asked the Delaware court to g ahead and dismiss Arbutus and Genevant’s case this May, arguing very prolifically that it could only be brought against the government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. It cited a law as such that was previously used to keep patent disputes from interfering with the supply of war materials during World War One. However, even after all of this, U.S. District Judge Mitchell Goldberg said in November that Moderna had not yet shown that the vaccines were made for the government or with its authorization and consent under the law, and that it may have instead been an “incidental beneficiary” of the shots. Now this does sound like a pretty confusingly uptight battle.
The Department of Justice had responded this Tuesday saying that Moderna should not be liable based on its contract to provide the vaccines to the government being a part of the operation that went with the name, Operation Warp Speed. It quite clearly said that the government’s liability is limited to Moderna’s alleged activity that took place under its U.S. contract. The case is technically Arbutus Biopharma Corp v. Moderna Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 1:22-cv-00252. Let’s see how the case unfolds and who emerges victorious, if at all any. After all, the health and much more important, the lives of the people of this country are on a hook as of now.
