Moderna Used Northwestern Tech to Build Covid Shot, Lawsuit Says

Moderna Inc. couldn’t have made such rapid progress on its Covid-19 shot without unauthorized use of patented vaccine-delivery technology developed by Northwestern University researchers, a federal lawsuit says.

A team of researchers used resources at the Evanston, Ill.-based university’s International Institute for Nanotechnology to discover and deploy the lipid-nanoparticle technology that delivers mRNA into patients’ cells, according to a complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of Delaware. A Moderna spokesperson said the company “is aware of the litigation and will defend ourselves against these claims.”

• Northwestern, seeking damages but no injunctive relief, alleges that Moderna’s ...