Moderna Drops After Losing Appeal Over Drug-Delivery Patents
- Federal Circuit rejects argument on Covid-19 vaccine threat
- Moderna projects 2021 sales of $20 billion, mostly on vaccine
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Moderna Inc. shares plunged after the pharmaceutical company lost an appeal of a patent ruling involving a rival’s drug-delivery technology, which could make its Covid-19 vaccine vulnerable to infringement suits.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Wednesday affirmed decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on two Arbutus Biopharma Corp. patents. The court said Moderna had no standing to appeal the ruling on one patent because it hadn’t developed its Covid vaccine until after it filed the appeal -- the pandemic hadn’t yet begun. The panel also affirmed the board’s finding that Moderna hadn’t proven the second patent covers an obvious invention.