GSK sues Pfizer claiming RSV vaccine patent infringement

GlaxoSmithKline on Wednesday sued Pfizer in U.S. court, alleging patent infringement over Britain-based GSK’s respiratory syncytial virus vaccine. 

GSK claims Recent York-based Pfizer’s RSV vaccine, Abrysvo, infringes on 4 of its patents related to the antigen utilized in its own shot.

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“Upon information and belief, Pfizer knowingly uses GSK’s claimed inventions in Abrysvo without permission,” GSK wrote in a scathing criticism filed in federal court in Delaware.

Each vaccines were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May to be used in adults 60 and above. Some doses are already available to the general public at retail pharmacies like Walgreens.

RSV is a standard respiratory infection that typically causes mild, cold-like symptoms, but more severe cases in older adults and kids. Every year, it kills 6,000 to 10,000 seniors and a number of hundred children younger than 5, based on CDC data.

GSK is demanding a jury trial and looking for monetary damages, including lost profits and royalties resulting from Pfizer’s alleged patent infringement. 

The British drugmaker can be asking a judge to stop Pfizer from manufacturing and selling Abrysvo within the U.S. for adults 60 and older.

GSK said it isn’t looking for to limit using Abrysvo for stopping RSV in infants, a separate shot specifically designed to guard newborns. The FDA is predicted to make a final decision on that vaccine in August. 

A Pfizer spokesperson said it’s “confident in its mental property position and can strongly defend its right to bring its modern” RSV shot to patients. 

The lawsuit noted that Pfizer began working on its RSV vaccine program as early as 2013, at the least seven years after GSK began its own program. 

The suit alleges that Pfizer knew of GSK’s patented technology since at the least October 2019, when Pfizer began difficult the validity of European versions of the patents. 

It is not the primary time GSK has waged a legal battle against Pfizer over patent rights. 

GSK in 2016 sued Pfizer in court in Ireland, alleging patent infringement over GSK’s meningitis vaccine.

Moderna last August also sued Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for patent infringement over its Covid vaccine. Pfizer and BioNTech countersued in December