Moderna Sues Pfizer Over COVID-19 Vaccine Patents

Vaccine maker Moderna announced Friday that it's suing rival drugmakers Pfizer and BioNtech for patent infringement. The lawsuit alleges the two companies used certain key features of technology Moderna developed to make their COVID-19 vaccine. It argues that Pfizer and BioNtech's vaccine infringes patents Moderna filed between 2010 and 2016 for its messenger RNA or mRNA technology. All three companies' COVID-19 vaccines used mRNA technology which is a new way to make vaccines. In the past, vaccines were generally made using parts of a virus, or inactivated virus, to stimulate an immune response. Read more from NPR here.