Vaccine development: Biontech: 1.2 billion euros for vaccine comparison in the USA

The vaccine manufacturer Biontech has reached multi-million dollar settlements in the USA in a dispute over license fees. The company from Mainz will pay a total of 1.2 billion euros to the US health authority NIH and the University of Pennsylvania, as Biontech announced upon request.

While the equivalent of around 759 million euros goes to the authorities, the university receives up to around 448 million euros. Biontech had brought a corona vaccine onto the market with the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

According to earlier information from Biontech, the dispute with the university was about “non-exclusive rights” to patent applications used in the Covid-19 vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer. The dispute with the NIH – the acronym stands for National Institutes of Health – revolved around royalties and other related amounts.

According to Biontech, the settlement with the NIH came about on December 20th, and that with the university on December 23rd. Both agreements do not represent an admission of liability in relation to the allegations made, emphasized Biontech. A spokeswoman said these cases were different from litigation with competitors such as Moderna or Curevac. The university and the NIH authority are cooperation partners.