The validity of the patent is at the heart of patent litigation between CureVac and fellow German biotech BioNTech and its partner Pfizer, claiming infringement by their Comirnaty coronavirus shot.
CureVac – which is developing mRNA-based vaccines for COVID-19 and influenza with GSK – filed suit in the Düsseldorf Regional Court last year, claiming infringement of five patents.
A judgment on four of those was deferred until next year, with the remaining one due for a verdict on 28th December. That is now unlikely to take place after the ruling on the fifth patent (EP 1 857 122 B1) by the German Federal Patent Court, the result of a bid to strike it down filed by BioNTech.
