'I can't get money because the lockdown is over, I'm going to sue.'
With China announcing the easing of its zero-covid-19 policy, the world's major vaccine manufacturing companies are busy going in and out of court to resolve patent rights issues.
Earlier, Moderna Inc sued Pfizer Inc and its partner, BioNTech in August on charges that the companies infringed on the patent rights of 3 types of Covid-19 vaccines it produced.
Moderna, in a lawsuit in Germany and the United States (US), is asking for an undisclosed amount of compensation in damages from the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine sold since March this year.
Furious with the claim, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech filed a counter-suit against Moderna on the same charge, which is the issue of Covid-19 vaccination patent rights.
Pfizer and BioNTech argue that they are confident in the intellectual property created and will 'vigorously defend' the patent against Moderna's claims.
He added that they developed the vaccine independently and described Moderna's claim as 'extreme', in addition to insisting that its patent was a 'greater contribution to the world'.
The US-based company managed to generate over $26.4 billion for the first 9 months of 2020 with the sale of Pfizer's BioNTech vaccine while Moderna raked in $13.5 billion in the same period.
For now the three companies are still in the lawsuit phase and no further statements have been issued by Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech.
