Pharma Giants Fight for Covid Vaccine Profits in UK Trial (1)

Moderna Inc.’s patents for Covid-19 vaccine must be declared invalid, Pfizer Inc argued at the start of a UK patent dispute that could help decide how billions of dollars in vaccine profits are shared between the pharmaceutical firms.

Pfizer and and its German partner for the vaccine BioNTech SE filed the lawsuit seeking to invalidate two patents behind Moderna’s vaccine, Spikevax, claiming they had no novelty. Moderna sued seeking damages from Pfizer and BioNTech alleging their vaccine Comirnaty infringed its patent.

The UK court began hearing arguments on Tuesday in the first part of the trial on the validity ...