Today, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced that the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman “for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA [messenger RNA] vaccines against COVID-19.” Dr. Karikó is a Professor at Szeged University and…
We previously reported on patent infringement litigations between Alnylam and Moderna. Below we provide updates on two proceedings involving the mRNA vaccine producer Moderna. First, in a patent action brought by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Alnylam”) against Moderna, Inc., ModernaTX, Inc., and Moderna US, Inc. (collectively, “Moderna”), the parties entered a…
GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals SA and GlaxoSmithKline LLC (collectively, “GSK”) recently filed suit in the District of Delaware against Pfizer, Inc. alleging that Pfizer’s respiratory syncytial virus (“RSV”) vaccine ABRYSVO infringes four U.S. patents covering GSK’s rival RSV vaccine, AVREXY. According to the complaint, AVREXY and ABRYSVO were approved by the U.S….
Last week, Canada-based Acuitas Therapeutics, Inc. (Acuitas) filed a complaint in the District of New Jersey for declaratory judgment of non-infringement and invalidity against Arbutus Biopharma Corp. and Genevant Sciences GmbH (collectively, Arbutus), challenging U.S. Patent Nos. 9,364,435; 8,058,069; 8,492,359; 8,822,668; 9,006,417; 9,504,651; 9,518,272; 11,141,378; 11,298,320; and 11,318,098 relating to…
Last Friday, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Alnylam”) filed new complaints for patent infringement in the District of Delaware against Pfizer and Moderna. This is the third time Alnylam has sued Pfizer and Moderna in Delaware alleging their COVID-19 vaccine lipid nanoparticle technology infringes Alnylam’s patent rights. The patents-in-suit are U.S. Patent…
Yesterday, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. filed four IPR petitions (IPR2018-01229, IPR2018-01236, IPR2018-01234, and IPR2018-01237) against GlaxoSmithKline process patents – US Patent Nos. 8,753,645 and 9,265,839. The ‘645 and ‘839 Patents are directed towards a process of conjugating bacterial saccharides to protein carriers in order to improve the immunogenicity of…