Moderna in Talks With NIH Over COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Dispute

Moderna and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are working to resolve a patent dispute over who created the messenger RNA-based substance used in the company’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Moderna disagreed that NIH scientists helped co-invent the mRNA sequence, but now says it is willing to make the government “co-owners of those patent applications that only listed Moderna scientists as inventors.” As a co-owner, the government will have the right to license the patent.

The Moderna-NIH COVID-19 vaccine partnership was the result of a four-year collaboration originally meant to develop vaccines for several other diseases, such as Middle East respiratory syndrome.