Three months for possible licence before court order in GSK vaccine dispute
Key Facts
The Unified Patent Court issued an injunction concerning Comirnaty, the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, covering member states of the European Patent Convention where the patent is in force, except the UK and Ireland, according to the decision published in the Unified Patent Court database. The order will not take effect immediately: the court deferred its enforcement until after a final decision and added a three-month period to allow time to obtain a licence. This sets a defined geographic scope and a timeline tied to the course of the case, rather than an immediate halt to the product in the markets covered. The ruling comes as companies deal with patent claims involving technologies used in vaccines. The US case related to these claims also remains separate from the settlement GSK reached with Moderna.
In a parallel legal track, GSK and Moderna agreed on October 28, 2026, to settle their outstanding disputes in the US and Europe through cross-licences for patents related to infectious diseases, according to a Moderna filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Moderna said the agreement ends all pending disputes between the parties in the two regions and did not require any payments. The settlement differs from the court ruling concerning Comirnaty, as it involves two other parties and different products.
In the case related to Comirnaty, the court’s decision addressed several companies within the Pfizer and BioNTech groups, not just the two parent companies. The court relied on the groups’ integrated and centralized operational structure in determining joint responsibility. GSK filed a lawsuit in the US in April 2024, according to BioNTech’s quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging infringement of patents related to the cationic lipids in Comirnaty. These details provide context on the scope of the parties and the claim, while the effect of the injunction remains conditional on a final decision and the expiry of the licensing period.
The disputes are not ending with proceedings in the European court: BioNTech said the US case it is pursuing with Pfizer over GSK patents remains pending, with a trial scheduled for June 2027. The company described the outcome of the lawsuits as "highly uncertain" and said it intends to defend itself against the claims. The open US case means the settlement between GSK and Moderna has not resolved the separate dispute concerning Comirnaty. In its latest results, announced on October 28, GSK reported total sales of 8.9 billion pounds in the third quarter of 2026, up 4% at actual exchange rates and 5% at constant exchange rates. Vaccine sales were 2.6 billion pounds, down 2% from the comparable period, according to the results statement.
EL7 data showed GSK shares closed at 50.64 on November 12, 2026, while Moderna shares closed at 231.35 on the same day. Pfizer shares closed at 28.83 and BioNTech at 85.04. The data do not specify the currency unit for these prices. These closes were recorded on the day before the article’s publication date, and the available figures do not include a comparison with the previous session’s closes or a measure of price movements resulting from the legal developments. The next milestone cited in the filing is the US trial scheduled for June 2027, preceded by a final decision in the European case under the court’s process.