Is BioNTech Reneging on its Commitment to Pay Penn University Royalites for its mRNA Technology?

THE TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, Plaintiffs, v. BIONTECH SE and BIONTECH RNA PHARMACEUTICALS GMBH Defendants.

It’s Going to Court in Pennsylvania

Penn University has taken BioNTech to court, see below:

THE TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, Plaintiffs, v. BIONTECH SE and BIONTECH RNA PHARMACEUTICALS GMBH, Defendants.

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

1. This is an action to compel BioNTech to comply fully with royalty obligations owed to Penn under a patent sublicense agreement that permitted BioNTech to use Penn’s Nobel-prize winning inventions in BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty®.

2. BioNTech is failing to meet its royalty obligations for two separate reasons. First, BioNTech is paying royalties only for products sold into a country where Penn has a patent, but under the parties’ royalty agreement BioNTech has the obligation to pay a royalty if the patented product is made in a country where Penn has a patent, regardless of where the product is ultimately adm…