Judges Appear Hung Up on Standing in Moderna Vaccine Appeals (1)

The Federal Circuit grappled with whether Moderna’s arguments that the risk of future infringement suits over its Covid vaccine gives it the right to appeal agency decisions upholding two drug-delivery patents.

The Patent Trial and Appeals Board upheld Arbutus Biopharma Corp.'s U.S. Patent No. 8,058,069 and parts of U.S. Patent No. 9,364,435 on lipid nanoparticles that protect messenger RNA in vaccines. Arbutus argues Moderna Inc. subsidiary ModernaTX has no standing to appeal those decisions because Moderna hasn’t suffered any concrete injury related to the patents.

Judges Alan D. Lourie, Kathleen M. O’Malley, and Kara F. Stoll seemed more willing to ...