The U.S. government is using the leverage of public funding to finance and boost supplies of both Moderna’s and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines, according to Financial Times.
The National Institutes of Health holds patents that allow the agency to enforce sharing of intellectual property rights as well as to assess royalties against the vaccine makers but, currently, for some reason the government has not enforced these rights.
Should the government decide to exercise its leverage rights, “Moderna could conceivably owe over $1 billion just for its sales through the end of this year,” Christoper Morten, of New York University, told Financial Times. Researchers at the university added that the patent itself “could entitle the U.S. government to as much as $1.8 billion this year alone.”
“Moderna infringes the National Institute of Health’s patent with every dose of vaccine it makes or sells in the US,” Morten said. In comparison, the NIH enforced its patents with Gilead Sciences’ HIV drug Truvada. The NIH declined to comment on why it hasn’t done likewise with Moderna.
SOURCE: Financial Times April 21, 2021