Like a couple fighting at their own housewarming, Moderna and the National Institutes of Health are locked in a year-long, closed-door conflict over vaccine patent rights, according to an NYT report.
Scientists familiar with the dispute see it as Moderna committing a betrayal. If government scientists are named as coinventors, then the US would have a larger say in who can manufacture the vaccine and license the technology, which would bring money into the Treasury.
Zoom out: Moderna’s vaccine grew out of a 4-year joint venture with the NIH, and the company received $10 billion in taxpayer funding to develop the shot. Analysts predict Moderna vaccine sales will reach $35 billion through the end of 2022.
Senior officials say the Biden administration has grown frustrated with Moderna because it hasn’t made its vaccine more available to low-income countries, nor has it sold the US cheap doses that could then be donated to those countries (as Pfizer has agreed to do).—MK