Covid-19 vaccine is the pivot of legal dispute between GSK, Pfizer and BioNTech

Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, in partnership with BioNTech, may have a “side effect” for both companies. This is because GSK claims that the manufacturers broke patents it owns. The information is from Folha de S. Paulo.

The British pharmaceutical company filed a lawsuit last Thursday, the 25th, in the federal court of Delaware, in the United States. She argues that she had patents on mRNA vaccine technology for “more than a decade before” the new coronavirus pandemic, which began in 2020.

Pfizer says it is “confident” in the Covid-19 vaccine process

Through a spokesperson, Pfizer stated that it was “confident” that it holds the intellectual property and that it will “vigorously” defend itself against the accusations brought by GSK.

GlaxoSmithKline states that, without its patents, the project would not be developed, but it says it is open to licensing them so that the vaccine remains on the market. BioNTech declined to comment.

This is not the first clash

GSK and Pfizer have already clashed over another vaccine, in this case the one designed to protect against bronchiolitis in babies. Again, the British claim that the technology used at Abrysvo is their intellectual property, which the Americans deny.

Immunization sales were big business

Despite having sold US$11.2 billion (around R$54.3 billion according to current prices) in 2023, Pfizer saw the sale of the vaccine against the new coronavirus fall last year compared to 2022.

This drop in business was one of the main reasons for the pharmaceutical company’s profit to plummet last year. After the record of US$31 billion (around R$163 billion at the time) in 2022, the company did not retain even 10% of this total, closing at US$2 billion (around R$9.7 billion).