CVAC - CureVac accelerates COVID patent dispute with Pfizer/BioNTech as court grants motion

2023-05-19 08:41:07 ET

CureVac N.V. ( NASDAQ: CVAC ) announced Friday that its motion to transfer the ongoing patent litigation filed by Pfizer ( NYSE: PFE )/BioNTech ( NASDAQ: BNTX ) has been granted, and the decision is likely to "significantly" speed up the progress of the lawsuit.

Accordingly, the federal district court of Massachusetts has granted the motion to transfer the lawsuit to the Eastern District of Virginia, allowing for a potential 2024 trial date.

The lawsuit is part of CureVac's ( CVAC ) claims that Pfizer ( PFE )/BioNTech ( BNTX ) have infringed nine of its U.S. patents by the production and sale of the companies' blockbuster COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty.

Updating on another patent litigation between the German vaccine maker and its local rival BioNTech ( BNTX ), CureVac ( CVAC ) said that the German Federal Patent Court issued a preliminary opinion in April 2023 supporting the validity of one of its patents at issue.

Accordingly, the German litigation filed by CureVac ( CVAC ) in June 2022 now covers a fifth patent that was unsuccessfully challenged by BioNTech ( BNTX ) in September.

"The progress of this litigation to date, in both Europe and the United States, gives us confidence in both the validity of our intellectual property portfolio and its relevance to the mRNA field," CEO of CureVac ( CVAC ) Alexander Zehnder remarked.

More on the patent dispute

• CureVac claims patent rights for Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
• Pfizer/BioNTech seek to revoke patent infringement claims by CureVac over COVID vaccine

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