“CureVac Shares Plummet Following German Court’s Ruling on Invalid mRNA Vaccine Patent”

Shares in German biotech company CureVac have taken a nosedive following a ruling by a German court that a patent it holds on mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines is invalid. The patent’s validity is central to ongoing litigation between CureVac and fellow German biotech firm BioNTech, along with its partner Pfizer, over alleged infringement by their Comirnaty coronavirus vaccine.

CureVac, which is currently developing mRNA-based vaccines for COVID-19 and influenza in collaboration with GSK, filed a lawsuit in the Düsseldorf Regional Court last year, alleging infringement of five patents. While judgment on four of these patents has been postponed until next year, the fifth patent (EP 1 857 122 B1) was due for a verdict on December 28th. However, this is now unlikely to occur following the German Federal Patent Court’s ruling, which was the result of a bid by BioNTech to have it invalidated.

This unexpected invalidation has left CureVac reeling, particularly as the patent court had previously supported its position in earlier opinions. Despite this setback, the company has announced plans to appeal the verdict before the German Federal Court of Justice. CureVac maintains that the ruling does not impact ongoing litigation in Germany concerning seven other intellectual property rights. Nevertheless, the news triggered a sell-off of its shares, causing their value to plummet by approximately 40%.

The patents in question, both German and EU, cover the engineering of mRNA molecules, including sequence modifications to increase stability and enhance protein expression, as well as mRNA formulations specific to SARS COV-2 vaccines.

Dr Alexander Zehnder, CureVac’s CEO, expressed disappointment at the patent court’s decision, particularly given the positive preliminary opinion on EP 1 857 122 B1 the court provided earlier this year. He emphasized, however, that this decision is just one of many that will be made regarding the use of CureVac’s intellectual property in the development of Comirnaty.

Despite failing to bring a COVID-19 vaccine to market during the pandemic due to a false start in its development programme, CureVac continues to collaborate with GSK on monovalent and bivalent, modified mRNA vaccine candidates for various respiratory diseases.

Zehnder stated, “While we do not seek to diminish the value of mRNA vaccines in changing the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, we strongly believe that CureVac’s role in laying the scientific groundwork for those vaccines needs to be recognised. We will continue to defend our claim for recognition and fair compensation and will take appropriate action by appealing this decision.”

In the US, Pfizer and BioNTech filed a lawsuit against CureVac in July 2022, seeking confirmation that Comirnaty does not infringe three CureVac patents. In response, CureVac has filed a counterclaim referencing 10 patents.

BioNTech has welcomed the German patent court’s decision, stating, “We will continue to vigorously defend our innovations against all allegations of patent infringement including this case.”

A judgment in favour of CureVac could result in a significant financial windfall for the company, given that cumulative global sales of Comirnaty are projected to exceed $80 billion.