COVID-19 Vaccine Stories I : Modern(a) Twists

The whole  World applauded when a unique  Public-Private Partnership  was forged.  The   US Governmental agency,  National Institutes of Health (NIH) and  Moderna the  American pharmaceutical company    joined forces   to confront the  COVID-19 pandemic. They began with a shared vision: to come up with a vaccine  against the deadly virus in the shortest time possible. The two have been in partnership for about 4  years in matters of health.  Everything went on as planned.  National Institute of Allergy and infectious Diseases  (NIAID)  under the umbrella of NIH readily shared their laboratory findings with Moderna and then  Lo and behold!    a vaccine  mRNA 1273 or Spikevax  was in the market in record time. 

Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine 
Courtesy: wikipedia

NIH put out a report    that "The incidence of symptomatic COVID-19 was thus 94.1% lower in participants who received mRNA-1273 compared to those receiving placebo........... The FDA  issued an Emergency Use Authorisation  for Moderna to make the vaccine available for the prevention of COVID-19 in adults on December 18, 2020."  Peer reviewed  results  appeared in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine in Dec. 2020.   In May 2021, Biden administration even hinted at  waving patent protection on humanitarian grounds. Rachel Cohen,  director for the non-profit Drugs and Neglected Diseases initiative in New York City Cohen is reported to have said : “These vaccines are an unparalleled triumph for science, but if only 20% or 30% of the world winds up benefiting, what is the point of the innovation?”

This must have been the  point at which  relationship turned sour,  the distaste spilling out in the open.  Moderna went  ahead and filed  core patents  omitting the names of the NIAID  scientists.  This makes Moderna  sole owner of intellectual property and sole beneficiary of  the profits reaped  from sales.   Anthony  Fauci, Director of NIAID is emphatic that names of NIAID scientists should have been included as inventors in the patent application   because it was a collaborative work.  Moreover   Moderna had received to the tune of 1.4billion dollars of government funding ( tax payers' money) to develop and test the vaccine.  However  CEO of Moderna  claims, that his scientists independently  invented the particular mRNA sequence used in the  vaccine. While NIAID argue they have already  published similar results much earlier in 2017(see Ref.2).  

It appears that Moderna extended consolation  arm to NIH by offering  co-ownership. But legal experts say co-ownership and co-inventor status are not equivalent. There is much more in fine print for co-ownership.

Moderna Headquarters,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Courtesy: wikipedia

Moderna was founded as ModeRNA Therapeutics  in  2010.    The name implies modified RNA  the focus of the  company. For Moderna it makes business sense   to have full and exclusive ownership on the patent because the  COVID-19 vaccine market is expected to be   $19.5 billion in another 5 years.  Add to  this the fact that   Moderna's product menu has only one item:.  COVID-19 vaccine.

Tailpiece:

Reliefweb states: "Moderna’s Q3 profit before tax for 9 months ending September 30 is $7.8 billion on $11.2 billion revenue giving a pre-tax profit margin of 70 percent. The company projects full year 2021 sales to be “between $15 billion and $18 billion”. Using the lower end of the estimate —70 percent of $15 billion is $10.5 billion in profit for 2021. The vaccine is Moderna’s only commercial product."

REFERENCES:

1. Experimental Coronavirus vaccine highly effective

2. Immunogenicity and structures of a rationally designed prefusion MERS-CoV spike antigen:  Jesper Pallesen et al (PNAS Aug 19, 2017)

3. What the Moderna–NIH COVID vaccine patent fight means for research

4. COVID-19 vaccine market set to touch $19.5bn by 2026

5. In shock move, US backs waiving patents on COVID vaccines

6. Covid-19: Moderna seeks to exclude US government scientists from vaccine patents, despite public investment

7. Moderna, escalating dispute with NIH, claims government had no role in key vaccine patent

8. Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna making $1,000 profit every second while world’s poorest countries remain largely unvaccinated