In autumn 2020, as drugmakers raced to get vaccines to market in the face of the biggest public health crisis in a generation, Moderna made a bold pledge: it would not enforce its patents against rivals developing Covid-19 jabs.
This year, however, almost two years after Pfizer and BioNTech beat it to the first approved mRNA jab, Moderna fired back with a lawsuit over patents for a technology that could open the door to many more vaccines.
If Moderna wins, it could gain a slice of billions of dollars in revenues from the BioNTech/Pfizer Covid jab. Perhaps more importantly, it would also signal to investors and Big Pharma that the Massachusetts-based company is primed to dominate the future mRNA market.