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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsModerna and NIH having a bitter dispute over who deserves credit
WASHINGTON Moderna and the National Institutes of Health are in a bitter dispute over who deserves credit for inventing the central component of the companys powerful coronavirus vaccine, a conflict that has broad implications for the vaccines long-term distribution and billions of dollars in future profits.
The vaccine grew out of a four-year collaboration between Moderna and the N.I.H., the governments biomedical research agency a partnership that was widely hailed when the shot was found to be highly effective. A year ago this month, the government called it the N.I.H.-Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.
The agency says three scientists at its Vaccine Research Center Dr. John R. Mascola, the centers director; Dr. Barney S. Graham, who recently retired; and Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett, who is now at Harvard worked with Moderna scientists to design the genetic sequence that prompts the vaccine to produce an immune response, and should be named on the principal patent application.
Moderna disagrees. In a July filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the company said it had reached the good-faith determination that these individuals did not co-invent the component in question. Its application for the patent, which has not yet been issued, names several of its own employees as the sole inventors.
From todays NYT - linkhttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/us/moderna-vaccine-patent.html
PatSeg
(47,602 posts)I suppose it was inevitable. Not only did Moderna collaborate with N.I.H. scientists, but the government contributed $10 billion of taxpayer funds to develop, test, and distribute the vaccine. Now Moderna doesn't want to include the government in the patent?
I pretty much knew this was coming, but I am still terribly disappointed. This was one time when the public and private sector came together for the good of the people, but now the inevitable greed has reared its ugly head. How much profit is enough for these people? Not to mention, most of that profit came from federal funds in the first place. Those "free vaccines" are paid for by the taxpayers.