Pfizer, Covid-19 vaccine partner sue maker of failed vaccine to keep it from claiming they stole from its patents

Pfizer, which has research and vaccine manufacturing facilities in Cambridge and Andover, and BioNTech, a German drug company with an office in Cambridge, are asking a federal judge to declare the recipe for their Covid-19 vaccine doesn't infringe on any patents held by CureVac, a German company with an office on Fort Point Channel that tried and failed to develop a marketable Covid-19 vaccine.

In a lawsuit filed today in US District Court in Boston, Pfizer and BioNTech are trying to block CureVac from filing a patent-infringement lawsuit against the two companies, which have now distributed millions of doses of their vaccine under the trade name of Comirnaty.

The two companies say that the methods they use to produce their Covid-19 vaccine have nothing in common with the methods that CureVac patented - and apparently used in its own, ultimately unsuccessful attempt to produce a vaccine. They suggest CureVac is simply making a legal play to try to get its biotech paws on money to help stanch its overall losses - 540 million euros in just the past two years.

The suit asks a judge to order CureVac to squelch itself on the patent-infringement claims and to pay the two companies their costs and attorney's fees for bringing the suit.