The Covid-19 vaccine race could produce a patent battle

Among the almost innumerable narratives surrounding Moderna in recent years is a dispute over who owns the rights to the technology that actually gets the company’s products into patients’ cells. That story fell by the wayside about three years ago, but Moderna’s sudden emergence as a leading light in the effort to develop a vaccine for Covid-19 has made the state of its patents a matter of investor interest.

Yesterday, an unsigned investor report made its way around the biotech internet, pointing out that Moderna and its counterparty, Arbutus Biopharma, could be headed for a decisive court decision. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board is slated to rule on Moderna’s claim that some of Arbutus’s patents are invalid. If the board finds in favor of Arbutus, Moderna could be vulnerable to a lawsuit seeking royalties.

Moderna has long maintained that there’s no risk to its intellectual property, while Arbutus has fairly dramatically argued to the contrary. None of this will matter if Moderna’s vaccine doesn’t prove to be protective against coronavirus. But if it does, and if Wall Street’s multibillion-dollar revenue projections are accurate, the matter of just who owns what could become a lucrative dispute.