Posted on 07/24/2020 8:38:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Moderna lost a patent case on Thursday that had been all but overlooked as the stock surged on excitement around the company’s Covid-19 vaccine, which is set to be tested in a large Phase 3 trial beginning next week.
What the decision handed down Thursday by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board could mean for Moderna (ticker: MRNA) isn’t yet clear, but the stock fell 9.5% on Thursday, and was down another 5% Friday in premarket trading.
“This legal dispute has been an ongoing debate among investors, and today’s decision is a disappointing turn for MRNA,” wrote SVB Leerink analyst Mani Foroohar on Thursday, who earlier in the day had initiated his coverage of the stock with a Market Perform rating. “In our view, this decision opens the door to a fascinating (and likely protracted) period of investor controversy and debate around the implications of any potential infringement of claims.”
Moderna brought the patent case in January of 2019 against Arbutus Biopharma (ABUS), a very small biotech, arguing that its patent for the technology used to deliver messenger RNA to a patients’ cells was unpatentable. The patent relates to the use of so-called lipid nanoparticles, the molecules that Moderna and other messenger RNA specialists use in many of their medicines, including Moderna’s experimental Covid-19 vaccine, known as MRNA-1273.
In the judgment issued Thursday, an administrative patent judge found that Moderna had not shown that the claims in the patent were unpatentable.
Theoretically, this could allow Arbutus to make royalty claims on Moderna’s drugs. In a statement to Barron’s, Moderna played down the significance of the ruling.
“To the extent it is believed the PTAB erred in their decisions, Moderna may further pursue these matters,” the company said.
(Excerpt) Read more at barrons.com ...
I’d worry about investing in any independent company seeking to patent a vaccine for the WuhanFlu. Once the Chinese, who engineered this virus, decide to release their vaccine, others will be worthless.
Well it looks like they should have tried to patent that application regardless. I assume this process is being used in this vaccine, which I would think is able to be patented.
They just need to buy this smaller company.
My guess is that any so called vaccine will be similar to the Flu vaccine, it will give partial protection and you will have to take it every year. There will be no permanent vaccine to take.
RE: Once the Chinese, who engineered this virus, decide to release their vaccine, others will be worthless.
They already have one near approval, the one from a company called CANSINO BIOLOGICS.
I think from the article, that Moderna tried to invalidate someone else’s patent, so they wouldn’t owe royalties on that patent to the other party. If so, it affects profit margin, not patentability of their own drug.
Really?
I hope that one or the other company will succeed coming up with a vaccine but so far, there never has been a successful coronavirus vaccine made, due to the nature of the virus. Additionally, past attempts to create a coronavirus vaccine have ONLY RESULTED IN LEAVING THE VACCINATED PERSON WITH A HIGHER CHANCE OF SERIOUS ILLNESS AND DEATH WHEN LATER EXPOSED TO ANOTHER STRAIN OF THE VIRUS.
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