By Will Feuer

Arbutus Biopharma Corp. and its licensee Genevant Sciences have filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE related to the latter's Covid-19 vaccine.

Arbutus Biopharma, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, said Tuesday that the patents relate to nucleic acid-lipid particles and their composition, manufacture, delivery and methods of use.

The company said Genevant is seeking compensation for Pfizer's and BioNTech's unlicensed use of its patented lipid nanoparticle delivery technologies in their Covid-19 vaccine.

"We believe that Pfizer and BioNTech could not have created and manufactured effective vaccines at such an unprecedented speed without the existing, proven and patented LNP technologies owned by Arbutus and licensed to Genevant," Arbutus Biopharma Chief Executive William Collier said.

Representatives for BioNTech didn't immediately return a request for comment.

Pfizer said in a statement that it hadn't yet received the complaint. "However, we remain confident in our intellectual property supporting the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and will vigorously defend against the allegations of the lawsuit," the company said.

Shares of Arbutus Biopharma slipped by about 1% to $3.03 a share in premarket trading.

Write to Will Feuer at Will.Feuer@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 04, 2023 09:03 ET (13:03 GMT)

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