Pharmaceuticals - Federal Court: Curevac's coronavirus vaccine patent null and void
The Federal Patent Court has declared a fundamental coronavirus vaccine patent held by the Tübingen-based pharmaceutical company Curevac to be invalid. The court thus upheld a lawsuit brought against Curevac by Mainz-based competitor Biontech on Tuesday. The shares of the Tübingen-based company subsequently lost a good third of their value.
Curevac announced that it would appeal to the Federal Court of Justice. The company applied for the disputed patent in 2007 and was granted by the European Patent Office for 20 countries in 2010. It concerns a method of overcoming the disadvantages of vaccines with the messenger molecule mRNA and increasing their effectiveness.
The Federal Patent Court has now declared it invalid in Germany. Other national patent courts often follow the decisions of the Munich judges.
A lot of money is at stake
The Munich proceedings are only one part of the dispute between the two companies - albeit a very decisive one. In July 2022, Curevac sued Biontech and its US partner Pfizer for damages at the Düsseldorf Regional Court for alleged infringement of several of its patents. Curevac is demanding "fair compensation" for the infringement of its intellectual property rights, which Biontech and Pfizer are alleged to have used in the successful production of their coronavirus vaccine.
The dispute is about a lot of money: Biontech made a profit of 10.3 billion euros in 2021 and a bottom line of 9.4 billion euros in 2022.
In return, Biontech brought an action before the Federal Patent Court in Munich and successfully demanded that a fundamental Curevac patent be declared null and void. It was not based on an invention. The Düsseldorf Regional Court adjourned the proceedings there until December 28 in order to await the decision of the federal judges.
Curevac failed to bring a coronavirus vaccine onto the market in time. However, the company claims to have developed basic technologies that have contributed significantly to the development of effective Covid-19 vaccines: it "pioneered the potential of mRNA to treat diseases and produce vaccines".
Patents in the USA and Germany
Biontech welcomed the decision of the Federal Patent Court. It makes it clear "that our research work is original". In 2020, Biontech developed the world's first approved Covid-19 vaccine, Comirnaty. This made it possible to vaccinate more than one billion people worldwide.
After the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the German government also acquired a stake in Curevac. However, the company with a good 1,000 employees was unable to produce a coronavirus vaccine. It does not yet have a commercially approved product and is in the red.
According to Curevac, the dispute with Biontech and Pfizer in Germany is about eight patents. In the USA, where a very large proportion of the coronavirus vaccine was produced, ten patents are at issue.
In the meantime, the market for Covid-19 vaccines has collapsed. Biontech is also struggling with shrinking sales. US partner Pfizer had to write down billions on its inventories and slipped into the red last quarter. The US manufacturer Moderna, which also launched a coronavirus vaccine, reported a billion-euro loss for the third quarter.
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- The Curevac patent dispute with Biontech and Pfizer also extends to patents in the USA, where a significant portion of the coronavirus vaccine was produced.
- The Düsseldorf Regional Court adjourned the proceedings between Curevac and Biontech until December 28, awaiting the decision of the Federal Court of Justice in Munich.
- Biontech, thanks to its successful production of the Comirnaty coronavirus vaccine, has been able to vaccinate over a billion people worldwide.
- The European Patent Office granted Curevac the disputed patent in 2010, after the company applied in 2007 for it in 20 countries.
- The Pharmaceutical company Biontech, based in Mainz, successfully challenged Curevac's fundamental coronavirus vaccine patent in the Federal Patent Court in Munich.
- Curevac, located in Baden-Württemberg, has partnered with numerous companies, including in Rhineland-Palatinate and the pharma industry, to develop mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutics.
- The Munich-based Federal Patent Court ruled that Curevac's patent covering the method of overcoming vaccine disadvantages with mRNA was not based on an invention, thus making it null and void.
- After the invalidation of its patent, Curevac plans to intensify its research and development efforts to identify new therapeutic and diagnostic approaches in the field of mRNA.
- The Federal Court of Justice will review Curevac's appeal against the invalidation of its patent by the Federal Patent Court in Munich, which could have significant implications for the future of mRNA-based vaccines and therapies in Germany and Europe.
- The loss of the patent led major Pharmaceutical companies, like Pfizer, based in the USA, to struggle with declining sales and shrinking profits, relying on COVID-19 vaccines for much of their revenue.
Source: www.stern.de
