CureVac Receives Positive Validity Decision from European Patent Office in Litigation Against BioNTech SE
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CureVac N.V., a global biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on messenger ribonucleic acid (“mRNA”), announced that the European Patent Office (EPO) has confirmed the validity of CureVac’s European patent EP 3 708 668 B1 subject to amendments to specify the scope of protection. Following the hearing, the opposition division largely dismissed the opposition originally filed by BioNTech SE in April 2023 challenging the patent’s validity and maintained the patent in amended form.
The ruling represents a major milestone in the ongoing patent dispute between CureVac and BioNTech in Germany, which involves a total of six intellectual property rights. Following the ruling, the Regional Court Düsseldorf will decide whether the patent in its amended form has been infringed. An infringement hearing is scheduled for July 1, 2025. A positive infringement decision would trigger proceedings to assess damages in the same court.
“We welcome the decision of the EPO to uphold EP 3 708 668 B1 and remain confident that the patent is infringed in its amended form. Today’s decision marks an important step on our path that we expect will lead to recognition of CureVac’s major contribution to safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccines as the earliest pioneer in mRNA technology,” said Dr. Alexander Zehnder, Chief Executive Officer of CureVac. “This effort is a multi-step process in Europe and the U.S. We remain determined to have our contributions to the field of mRNA technology acknowledged and fairly compensated, and to continue making advances that expand the frontiers of mRNA-based medicines.”
EP 3 708 668 B1 describes a foundational invention of CureVac, called split poly-A tail technology, which enhances medical efficacy by improving expression of the protein encoded on an mRNA construct.
CureVac is represented in Germany by Oliver Jan Jüngst from Bird & Bird LLP and Andreas Graf von Stosch from Graf von Stosch Patentanwaltsgesellschaft and represented in the U.S. by Mark H. Izraelewicz from Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP and John M. Erbach from Spotts Fain, PC.
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